NBS Overview
ShareCompartir
About the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System
NBS is a CDC-developed integrated information system that helps local, state, and territorial public health departments manage reportable disease data and send notifiable disease data to CDC.
NBS provides a tool to support the public health investigation workflow and to process, analyze, and share disease-related health information. NBS also provides reporting jurisdictions with a NEDSS-compatible information system to transfer epidemiologic, laboratory, and clinical data efficiently and securely over the Internet.
Built and maintained by CDC, NBS integrates data from many sources on multiple public health conditions to help local, state, and territorial public health officials identify and track cases of disease over time. This capability allows public health to provide appropriate interventions to help limit the severity and spread of disease.
NBS Background
The primary goal of the first release of NBS was to support the electronic processes involved in state reportable and notifiable disease surveillance, investigation, and analysis and replace the functionality supported by the National Electronic Telecommunications System for Surveillance (NETSS). CDC started development of NBS in 2001, and the first version of the application went live in the state of Nebraska in January 2003. Since then, the system has evolved into a modern disease surveillance, case management, and case notification system. It serves as a reference implementation of the NEDSS standards and living laboratory for testing implementation of best practices in public health surveillance systems.
NBS Jurisdictions
NBS helps jurisdictions meet their public health surveillance needs by:
- facilitating local and state public health department collaboration;
- providing an integrated data repository, which is a hub for public health surveillance;
- reducing the data entry burden on public health professionals;
- providing customizable tools such as easily configurable electronic disease data collection forms to quickly respond to emerging diseases;
- reducing the need to support multiple, siloed systems;
- connecting state and local public health departments to laboratories, healthcare providers, and national public health;
- providing a system that combines technology, standards, public health policy, and disease surveillance; and
- shifting from paper to electronic data exchanges.
To date, 22 health departments (19 states; Washington, DC; Guam; and U.S. Virgin Islands) use NBS to manage public health investigations and transfer general communicable disease surveillance data to CDC.
NBS is also currently operating in the following U.S. territories:
- Guam
- Virgin Islands
- Page last reviewed: October 31, 2016
- Page last updated: February 11, 2016
- Content source: