At a glance
A Connected Public Health Data Infrastructure: An Asset to Our Nation's Health and Security
The Public Health Data Strategy (PHDS) is part of a groundbreaking effort to modernize the nation's public health data systems. By investing in modern tools, integrated data, and state-of-the-art analytic capabilities, CDC is leading a transformation that strengthens day-to-day public health operations and ensures the nation is prepared to meet 21st-century health threats.
First launched in 2023 and updated annually, the PHDS is the agency’s roadmap for achieving fast, efficient, and secure exchange of data across health care and public health. The PHDS outlines specific, measurable, timebound, and achievable actions to improve data exchange and infrastructure across the public health ecosystem. These milestones measure progress and promote accountability and transparency.
The PHDS builds on key advancements in health information technology to solve long-standing problems in public health data exchange: outdated technology, cumbersome processes, and siloed, disconnected systems. CDC and its national, state, and local partners are replacing traditional data silos with a robust, connected data infrastructure.
The PHDS sets four overarching goals, each accompanied by a set of specific milestones.
- Goal 1: Strengthen the core of public health data
- Goal 2: Accelerate access to analytic and automated solutions to support public health investigations
- Goal 3: Visualize and share insights to inform public health action
- Goal 4: Advance more open and interoperable public health data
View the complete set of goals and milestones at PHDS Milestones for 2026.
The PHDS supports CDC’s commitment to creating a data infrastructure that is responsive, connected, and sustainable. By outlining ambitious but achievable steps, it enables:
- Near real-time awareness of novel and serious threats to ensure emergency preparedness.
- Faster detection of infectious disease outbreaks and health events.
- Better insights into a wide range of disease conditions and trends.
- Data-driven decisions about prioritization of resources.
- Improved clinical decision-making and patient safety.
- Transparent, fast, accurate, and trusted information so individuals, families, and communities can make informed decisions to protect their health.
Progress Made through the PHDS
The PHDS has helped CDC and its public health and healthcare partners make significant and steady progress in data modernization. For example:
- Faster data sharing in rural communities: Nearly three in five critical access hospitals are submitting case reports to health departments via electronic case reporting, leading to faster detection of anomalies in health status among rural communities.
- Better resource allocation during emergencies: Fifteen states are submitting near-real-time hospital bed capacity data to CDC via the National Healthcare Safety Network, surpassing the 2025 PHDS goal of 12 states. Real-time hospital bed data improves patient care coordination, helping hospitals and health systems quickly locate available beds when patients need them most.
- Centralized data to enhance collaboration and decision-making: Users of CDC's new enterprise data platform, the One CDC Data Platform (1CDP), can now access 6 core public health data sources in a single place. There, they can integrate multiple data sources and use shared analytic and visualization tools to assess disease trends rather than multiple siloed systems and tools.
- Reduced reporting burden and accelerated data sharing: 12 healthcare facilities are submitting critical hospital data to CDC using automated Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®)1-based exchange, exceeding the 2025 target of 10 facilities. Leveraging FHIR — an international standard for electronic healthcare data exchange — reduces reporting burden on hospitals and enables faster data sharing.
For more examples of progress achieved through the PHDS, visit PHDS Progress Highlights and PHDS Progress Stories.
PHDS Updates for 2026
Each annual update of the PHDS enables CDC to prioritize activities for impact, optimize efficiency, and ensure stewardship, transparency, and data privacy. This year's update reflects improvements that build on progress since 2023, adapt to evolving needs and priorities, and remain feasible with available resources.
In 2026, the PHDS continues to focus on:
- Improving the quality and speed of core data sources to support timely and effective public health action.
- Supporting timely, transparent, easy-to-use data dashboards, enabling health departments, healthcare providers, government decision-makers, and individuals to find and understand trusted information on diseases and threats.
- Facilitating adoption of common standards and legal agreements that ease and streamline data sharing.
Key developments for 2026 include new milestones to:
- Promote artificial intelligence (AI) integration across public health, in alignment with CDC's AI Strategy, the US Department of Health and Human Services AI Strategy, and America's AI Action Plan.
- Expand partnerships between state health departments and data intermediaries — such as health data utilities — to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of data exchange.
- Provide access to the 1CDP Partner Workspace, a one-stop shop for health departments and other partners to submit and report data to CDC and access shared tools.
Looking to the Future
Through the PHDS, we’ve made significant strides and generated momentum, but there is still much to accomplish. As we look toward 2027 and beyond, we will continue to embrace cutting-edge approaches in line with HHS-designated priorities that can fully transform public health data exchange, enabling a data infrastructure that keeps our nation ready for any health threat.
- FHIR® is a registered trademark of Health Level Seven International and use of this trademark is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement by HL7®.