Surveillance is a key data-driven activity of public health.
CDC's surveillance systems use data from various sources, some of which are collected from health-care providers, laboratories, individuals, or directly from medical records and birth and death certificates explicitly for surveillance purposes. The ongoing, automated capture and analysis of data, including automated algorithms for detecting aberrations of potential importance. Capture of data that are already electronic, with no need for re-entry of data. Efficient data collection via access to multiple critical sources such as computerized medical and laboratory records for public health uses. In 1994, she became Chief of the Systems Operations and Information Branch in the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Informatics.