CDC Advances Data Strategy to Speed Public Health Response

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is bolstering its Public Health Data Strategy (PHDS) with updated milestones and a new enterprise data sharing platform to improve government’s public health response as the nation faces emerging health threats, Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology Director Dr. Jennifer Layden told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview.

“As we move into this year, there’s continued work in many of [the 2023 and 2024 focus] areas: continuing to improve [data] speed, quality, completeness and the way we can visualize or disseminate the data,” said Layden.

There have been 378 confirmed cases of measles across 15 states and two deaths reported in Texas as of March 20, 2025, according to CDC data reports. State, tribal, local and territorial (STLTs) public health agencies are tracking recent measles and bird flu cases and developing strategies to bolster interoperability to improve public health response and inform data-driven decisions.

“The measles outbreak in Texas is a call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health. By working together — parents, health care providers, community leaders and government officials, we can prevent future outbreaks and protect the health of our nation,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy during a recent interview with Fox News.

Introducing 1CDP

CDC has made tremendous progress in data-sharing efforts since the first iteration of its PHDS in 2023, explained Layden.  The agency has updated milestones for its data strategy for 2025 and 2026 to enhance data collection, exchange and utilization.

In 2025, CDC programs, STLTs and federal partners will have access to three core data sets —case, laboratory and emergency room data —through the new enterprise data sharing platform called One CDC Data Platform (1CDP).

As a part of the 2024 PHDS, 1CDP has improved data sharing between CDC and its partners. 1CDP is helping public health officials make data-driven decisions by reducing the burden of manually searching through siloed data systems.

“One big area that we added this year was the focus on accelerating our progress on an enterprise data platform,” said Layden. “[1CDP is] the place where the data is integrated, which will streamline and lead to efficiencies for those that send us data, but also the way that we can use [public health data] for day to day work, as well as in times of response.”

CDC plans to add 10 core data sets by 2026, and future iterations of the PHDS will continue to add more data sets. Completing these goals will create a more standardized health care system, ensuring that public health officials and partners can respond to routine and emergency health threats.

Layden said setting standards and boosting data interoperability makes data sharing between health care providers and public health officials easier, ultimately increasing response time to public health threats.

“Syndromic data is based on an unknown type of data standard, and because [the CDC is] leveraging something that health care is using, that data flows very quickly,” said Layden. “Another great example is electronic case reporting … a trigger of a potential measles case or Ebola case sends a standardized data set to public health through a channel that is very low burden and allows that to data to flow almost instantaneously.”

Using Data to Make Informed Decisions, Reduce Burden

Layden said the 2025 and 2026 milestones will articulate the importance of investing in public health. The strategy will show how communities make informed and efficient decisions through data.

“It’s one thing to say we have 88% of emergency rooms that are now sending the data, but I think it’s another thing to say, because of that, we can detect early signals of rising respiratory illness … or inform a clinician on their testing in treatment for patients,” said Layden.

According to the 2024 PHDS Progress Report, more states established an automated data feed and are submitting near-real-time hospital bed capacity data to the CDC. This helps to reduce the burden on hospitals and STLTs and enables faster and more accurate monitoring of hospitalizations.

Electronic reporting also helps public health departments and CDC quickly identify disease trends in rural communities. Layden said at HIMSS 2024 that roughly 33,000 facilities sent syndromic surveillance data directly and automatically to the CDC including state and local partners.

The progress report also noted that STLTs and CDC have access to integrated data and visualizations on various diseases like measles and bird flu available in a single platform. This data is available within two to three days of when the CDC receives it.

“When interoperability is in place, it’s really advantageous,” said Layden. “The clinician has the information at the fingertips and the patient doesn’t have to hunt down their records … and that same potential is there for public health.”