To achieve the objectives, the conference was structured to review the current state of biosurveillance, identify core components for a comprehensive capability and scientific and technical bases to support this capability and explore the critical improvements needed to enhance the existing regional and global disease outbreak prediction capabilities. Open discussion time was planned in order to engage broad participation during the conference to recommend approaches to establishing an effective international network, propose implementation strategies and the measures of effectiveness and identify the challenges that must be overcome in the next 3Á5 years in order to establish an initial biosurveillance capability that will have significant positive impact on biothreat nonproliferation, economy and public health.