title: Lexicon, definitions, and conceptual framework for public health surveillance.
abstract: Public health surveillance is essential to the practice of public health and to guide prevention and control activities and evaluate outcomes of such activities. With advances in information sciences and technology, changes in methodology, data availability and data synthesis, and expanded health information needs, the question arises whether redefining public health surveillance is needed for the 21st century. The current definition is "Public health surveillance is the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data, essential to the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice, closely integrated with the dissemination of these data to those who need to know and linked to prevention and control."
authors: National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia 30329-1902, USA. ihall@cdc.gov
authors: H Irene
authors: HI
authors: Hall
authors: Adolfo
authors: A
authors: Correa
authors: Paula W
authors: PW
authors: Yoon
authors: Christopher R
authors: CR
authors: Braden
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D003625:Data Collection; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D008490:Medical Informatics; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011634:Public Health; D009626:Terminology as Topic