ISDS News – International Society for Disease Surveillance

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ISDS News is a collection of items considered to be of interest to members of the public health surveillance communities. To have your news included, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

January 10, 2017

Website Disruption of Service

With apologies for the inconvenience, ISDS has been experiencing website disruptions that have resulted in our site not loading over the past days and currently as of 3:00PM EST Tuesday, January 10th, the Community Forum is not available. We are aware of and are working on the issue. You may click here to attempt to access the forum.

October 21, 2016

CMS Centralized Repository

The Stage 3 Meaningful Use Public Health Reporting Requirements Task Force has released guidance for public health agencies on the CMS Centralized Repository and the form CMS released for gathering information from registries.

To download the guidance document, click here.

The link to the repository input form is: https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/EHR_CentRepos_Form.pdf

Public health agencies may submit a form per registry to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  by 31 Oct 2016.

September 15, 2016

Free Course in One Health

In collaboration with Swiss TPH and FutureLearn, the University of Basel in Switzerland has produced the free online course „One Health: Connecting Humans, Animals and the environment”. The course explores an integrative approach to human and animal health and examines the value of it – as well as explain how One Health strategies work in practice. For further information see

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/one-health

Enrollment is now open. The course starts on 7 Nov 2016.

July 22, 2016

Executive Director Transition

The Board of Directors of the International Society for Disease Surveillance is writing to announce the departure of Laura Streichert, PhD MPH as Executive Director of the Association she has served for the past five years.Laura served as ISDS’s first Executive Director and her accomplishments reflect the mission of the Society to advance the science and practice of health surveillance worldwide. During her tenure, the Society has:

  • engaged members and stakeholders across every state and in 45 countries on five continents;
  • fostered collaborations and the exchange of knowledge through webinars, consultancies, annual conferences and online communities of practice; and
  • expanded beyond its core focus on syndromic surveillance to include expertise in new disciplines, including One Health Surveillance.

Laura also helped to secure the recently-awarded CDC cooperative agreement to implement and maintain a Community of Practice for the National Syndromic Surveillance Program. We will miss her tireless spirit and uncompromised dedication to our vision. ISDS is poised for continued success and we wish the same for her. Laura will remain with ISDS until August 3.For questions as we launch a search for her successor, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .Amy Ising, MSPresident

International Society for Disease Surveillance

From Laura StreichertIt has truly been a wonderful professional and personal experience to meet and work with so many dedicated public health practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholder groups to identify real needs, share ideas and information, move ideas to action, and together do what no one person or group could do alone. I am honored to have made such great friends and colleagues. May our paths cross again!All the best,

–Laura

July 5, 2016

ISDS Receives CDC Award to Implement Community of Practice for National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance, has awarded the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) a three-year cooperative agreement to develop, implement, and maintain a community of practice for CDC’s National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP).The NSSP CoP, which promotes the use and practice of syndromic surveillance, will provide a peer-to-peer collaborative environment to foster and facilitate knowledge sharing and partnership. Working together, CDC, ISDS, stakeholders, and community members can leverage the talents of a broad range of public health practitioners to enhance the nation’s syndromic surveillance capacity.

Funding will support development, implementation, promotion, and ongoing maintenance of NSSP’s Community of Practice (NSSP CoP) through activities such as:

  1. Developing and maintaining a content management system and knowledge repository.
  2. Developing and delivering a variety of training and knowledge-sharing events and activities.
  3. Establishing a steering committee to lead and guide the CoP.
  4. Developing a process for peer-to-peer mentoring and coaching.
  5. Identifying methods to share success stories and measure the value and success of the CoP.

May 19, 2016

Over 40 Public Health Leaders Sign Statement in Support of Data Sharing

The International Association of National Public Health Institutes, who’s 100 member organizations represent over 5 billion people on four continents issued a statement in support of routine sharing of public health data. The call to share data, signed by 40 leaders of public health organizations, including ISDS Executive Director, Laura Streichert, PhD, MPH may be read in full on IANPHI’s website.

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