Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems

In July 2001, CDC published Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems. The integration of surveillance and health information systems, the establishment of data standards, the electronic exchange of health data, and changes in the objectives of public health surveillance to facilitate the response of public health to emerging health threats have necessitated the update of the guidelines. These guidelines describe various tasks involved in evaluating a public health surveillance system and provide relevant standards to assess the quality of the evaluation activities. This information is valuable to a wide audience, including public health practitioners; health-care providers; data providers and users; professional, private, and nonprofit organizations; and government officials at the local, state, and federal levels.