Ruth Carrico, PhD, RN, CIC, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Health Sciences, has been invited to serve on the National Biosurveillance Advisory Committee. This committee will play a key role in the development and implementation of the National Strategy for Biosurveillance, and will help ensure that governmental and non-governmental partners have a formal mechanism to provide advice and substantive input to CDC regarding the next generation biosurveillance system for tracking and understanding the dynamics of routine and emerging acute health problems.

The National Strategy for Biosurveillance is the CDC’s response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21). HSPD-21 established a national strategy for disaster public health and medical preparedness and acknowledges the critical nature of active, near real-time data gathering with appropriate analysis, interpretation and sharing of information related to domestic and international disease threats and events, in order to achieve early warning and effective response. For CDC, this strategy emphasizes the vitally important work of health surveillance that has been the hallmark of CDC’s mission since the agency was formed.