Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (proposed) (PHSIPO)*

Biosurveillance Coordination Activity (BCA)

Coordinating Biosurveillance Efforts for CDC

In 2007, Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21) was issued in recognition of the emergence of significant health-related threats to the nation. HSPD-21 called for the development of a nationwide approach to biosurveillance in order to enhance the United States’ ability to detect and respond to those threats. HSPD-21 defines biosurveillance as—

…the process of active data-gathering with appropriate analysis and interpretation of biosphere data that might relate to disease activity and threats to human or animal health—whether infectious, toxic, metabolic, or otherwise, and regardless or intentional or natural origin—in order to achieve early warning of health threats, early detection of health events, and overall situational awareness of disease activity.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was charged with the responsibility of enhancing biosurveillance for human health and delegated this responsibility to CDC. In 2008, CDC established the Biosurveillance Coordination unit (BC) (now BCA) to oversee the necessary activities to address these mandates.

With input from federal, state, local, tribal, and private stakeholders, BCA coordinated the release of the first draft version of the National Biosurveillance Strategy for Human Health (NBSHH) in December 2008. The NBSHH established priorities for the nation’s next-generation biosurveillance capability to provide timely, comprehensive, and accessible information to strengthen public health practice, provide value to clinicians, and build upon current systems and resources.  Version 2 of the National Biosurveillance Strategy for Human Health (NBSHH) was extensively revised and expanded to include additional information.  It was released in February 2010.

The Concept Plan for Implementation of the National Biosurveillance Strategy for Human Health was released in January 2010. The Concept Plan addresses three broad areas:  a governance structure across the biosurveillance enterprise; the development of a registry of biosurveillance systems, programs, tools, collaboratives, and registries; and the need for a communications strategy.

BCA also provides support to the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee (NBAS), a HSPD-21 mandated independent advisory committee composed of prominent public and private biosurveillance stakeholders and contributors. Their initial report, “Improving the Nation’s Ability to Detect and Respond to 21st Century Urgent Health Threats: First Report of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee"contained five high level cross-cutting recommendations to be considered by federal leadership.  The report was released publicly in October 2009. Their similarly titled second report moved towards more specific recommended action steps and was released publicly in June 2011.     

With the assistance of many internal and external supporters, BCA will continue to support the efforts to enhance our nation’s biosurveillance capability.

Download the Latest BCA Overview