BioSense Background

Mandated in the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, the CDC BioSense Program was launched in 2003 to establish an integrated national public health surveillance system for early detection and rapid assessment of potential bioterrorism-related illness.

The BioSense program is administered by the Division of Notifiable Diseases and Healthcare Information in CDC’s Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office; Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.

Building BioSense 2.0: The Redesign

In FY 2010, CDC started redesigning the BioSense program based on input and guidance from our local, state, and federal partners. The goal of the redesign effort is to be able to provide nationwide and regional situational awareness for all-hazard health-related threats (beyond bioterrorism) and to support national, state, and local responses to those threats. This support was achieved through improved internal contract management, with savings being applied directly to increase funding to support state and local health departments for syndromic surveillance efforts. Through these savings the BioSense program awarded funding to 35 jurisdictions in 2012.

CDC continues to examine the stakeholder requirements and needs assessment, determine limitations of participating sites, assess Meaningful Use readiness, and work collaboratively with external partners on how best to meet the needs of state and local health departments.