Should Leading Causes Be Leading Solutions? Integrating Chronic Disease Surveillance into Data Modernization Efforts

Chronic diseases are leading causes of death and disability in the United States and have disproportionate impacts in our communities due to demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic factors that affect health outcomes. Limitations in timeliness, representativeness, and granularity of chronic disease data hinder efforts to understand trends, factors contributing to differences in health outcomes, and community needs.

In this paper, we explore strengths and gaps in chronic disease surveillance capacity in the United States. Then we consider similarities and differences between chronic and infectious disease surveillance needs and approaches. Finally, we make the case for working towards a more comprehensive and integrated approach to data modernization that prioritizes the leading causes of death, disability, and differences in health outcomes in our communities, regardless of etiology, to build a public health surveillance ecosystem that can provide the timely, representative, and local data required to develop responsive and effective health policies and community-based interventions.