Who We Are
As part of CDC Moving Forward, we're forming a new Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology. Stay tuned to this website for updates.
Welcome to the home for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology (OPHDST)!
As part of Moving Forward, CDC established OPHDST “to improve the availability and use of public health data to inform decision making and action.” This is the first office at CDC solely dedicated to leading, coordinating, and executing a comprehensive public health data strategy.
About the office
OPHDST serves as a platform for better partnerships and collaboration around public health data and surveillance, including data modernization. This strategy and coordination include CDC’s programs as well as public health and other external partners.
The office brings together the functions of the Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance with experts from other CDC centers and divisions to better execute the public health mission. This structure also includes the National Center for Health Statistics, which is the federal government’s principal health statistics agency.
What we do
Overall responsibilities of OPHDST include:
- Managing public health core data systems, technology solutions and tools, and data policy essential to public health
- Promoting response-ready data and systems
- Incorporating end-user design principles to meet the needs of STLTs and CDC programs
- Prioritizing efforts to improve access to and the dissemination of data to inform decision-making.
Specific OPHDST focus areas are:
- Executing a unifying public health data strategy
- Holistically and systematically addressing gaps in the nation’s response readiness
- Aligning public health modernization efforts at all levels of public health and across partners
- Defining priority near term public health goals, key outcomes, and measures of success
- Advancing four core missions of a robust public health data ecosystem aimed at improving health outcomes equitably:
- Detect and monitor
- Investigate and respond
- Inform and disseminate
- Be response-ready
You can read more about changes that will prioritize public health action at CDC on the CDC Moving Forward website.