**GAO-09-100**                      Published: Nov 20, 2008. Publicly Released: Nov 20, 2008.                  

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## Highlights

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), developed an electronic syndromic surveillance system called BioSense that uses health-related data to identify patterns of disease symptoms prior to specific diagnoses. In late 2007, CDC began to redesign the program to improve collaboration with stakeholders and address identified management weaknesses. Pursuant to House Report 110-231, GAO evaluated the BioSense program, focusing on the cost and timeline estimates and performance measures and benchmarks for implementing the program, among other objectives. To accomplish this, GAO analyzed relevant program documentation and interviewed CDC officials responsible for developing and implementing BioSense.

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## Topics

Information Technology

Best practicesCost analysisData integrityData storageDesign specificationsHealth care programsHealth resources utilizationMedical information systemsPerformance measuresProgram evaluationProgram managementPublic healthRisk assessmentRisk managementStrategic planningSystems analysisSystems designSystems evaluationCost estimatesProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementationTimeliness