Project Updates, February 2023

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CDC provides virtual training and consultation on NBS

CDC recently hosted two virtual events on the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NBS) for programmatic and technical staff working at the state, tribal, local, and territorial levels. The events provided public health jurisdictions with a closer look at how NBS can help them manage their reportable disease data, and CDC staff were able to gain a deeper understanding of jurisdictions’ data systems, surveillance workflows, and modernization efforts.

Virtual Training

The first event, a virtual training held January 17–20, 2023, provided comprehensive guidance on how to use NBS for public health surveillance. Topics included:

  • surveillance workflows,
  • data collection forms,
  • interoperability with electronic laboratory reporting (ELR) and case reporting (eCR),
  • reporting and analysis functionality,
  • system monitoring and best practices, and
  • case notification and data reconciliation processes.

An average of 150 people participated in each session, with some sessions hosting close to 200 participants. Attendees represented diverse organizations, including public health departments, NBS support vendors, and CDC programs.

professional at work

The NBS team received positive feedback from attendees. As one participant noted, “You all were very organized and put together thorough, informative presentations covering many applicable topics. It is difficult to try to reach participants with a wide range of knowledge and abilities.” Other attendees commented that deep dives into NBS processing helped them get a better understanding of how NBS works with ELR and eCR data.

The sessions were especially useful for staff working in new roles. “As someone walking in on week 3, day 1, in a new role, it was helpful getting such an in-depth introduction to the system and all of its functionality,” said one attendee. “It gave me suggestion points to take back for the team members to approach operability issues I’ve seen as a fresh set of eyes.”

To access materials and recordings from the training event, email nbs@cdc.gov.

Modernization Virtual Consultancy

In addition to the virtual training, CDC’s NBS modernization team held its first virtual consultancy on January 25, 2023. This event gave NBS users an opportunity to share their input on features and priorities for modernization. The consultancy helped CDC’s growing NBS team broaden collaboration with jurisdictions and is just one of the many ways CDC is receiving input from NBS users.

CDC presentations—including opening remarks from Dr. Jennifer Adjemian, director, CDC Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance—offered an overview of:

  • how CDC uses human-centered design principles and user research to understand the needs of NBS users and
  • how CDC uses these insights to prioritize new features and improvements.

After the presentations, participants joined break-out rooms for two interactive activities. The first activity asked participants to imagine a completely new disease surveillance system and brainstorm features and capabilities they would want in the system. The team encouraged participants to think about how they would build an ideal disease surveillance system without being constrained by currently available resources.

The second activity asked participants to share their thoughts about what works well in NBS today, what needs improvement, and what new opportunities they see. Insights from both activities will help CDC prioritize short-term next steps to modernize the current NBS while influencing a long-term vision for the future of NBS.

The team conducted polls at the beginning and the end of the virtual consultancy to measure the event’s effectiveness and inform planning for future events. Although more work is still ahead, the results show significant improvements in:

  • trust that CDC is focusing NBS modernization on the needs of users and
  • understanding of how CDC determines priorities for NBS modernization.

The team plans to present findings to jurisdictions on an upcoming weekly NBS Subject Matter Expert call.

To access the slides and recordings from the virtual consultancy event, email nbs@cdc.gov.