ISDS works toward a vision of timely, effective, and coordinated disease prevention and response among a skilled public health workforce through programs that position us at the vanguard of the disease surveillance field. Ongoing ISDS activities include:
- Building and sustaining a surveillance Community of Practice (CoP).
- Fostering innovations in surveillance research and practice.
- Increasing public health capacity by providing support and technical expertise to local, regional, and federal public health practitioners in the United States and around the world.
- Developing targeted resources to inform and expand the dialogue on timely topics of interest to the surveillance community.
- Hosting surveillance education and training activities that build workforce competencies.
- Convening the ISDS annual conference and disseminating findings by publishing abstracts in print and online proceedings.
ISDS is governed by a ten member Board of Directors that represents national and international leaders in disease surveillance.
ISDS by the Numbers
Mission Statement
The International Society for Disease Surveillance works to improve population health by advancing the science and practice of surveillance to support timely and effective prevention and response. We facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and promote and conduct research, education, and advocacy.
Vision
Activities of the ISDS promote the exchange, analysis, and interpretation of relevant health information by a skilled surveillance workforce to enable effective, timely, and coordinated actions that prevent disease and promote health.
Core Values
- Surveillance is a critical public health function
- The population-based evidence of anomalous health events that we believe exists can be captured as objective data in a sufficiently timely manner to enable investigation, threat characterization, and response in order to reduce the burden of disease in terms of both prevention and outcomes.
- Advancing the science and practice of surveillance is essential.
- Interdisciplinary collaboration is key to the optimal practice of surveillance.
- It is imperative to link timely and detailed information about health status with action to protect the health and well-being of citizens.
- Institutional and organizational barriers to performing optimal surveillance are surmountable.
- Evidence exists to support the need for advancing surveillance practice in order to attain better health for all people.
- A skilled workforce and well-designed, operationally customized surveillance systems are essential to our success.
- Collaboration with global partners and the advancement of surveillance worldwide is critical to ensuring the health of all people.