Form 0920-1050 National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) Community

Form Approved

OMB Control No. 0920-1050

Exp Date: 06/30/2025

National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) Community of Practice (CoP) Survey

Language for Email outreach and the Survey introduction:

National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) Community of Practice (CoP) Survey

Introduction

The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cultivates, facilitates, and maintains the online National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP) Community of Practice.

CSTE is seeking input on how well the NSSP Community of Practice is meeting the needs of its members. As a valuable member of the community, CSTE invites you to participate in this member satisfaction and needs assessment. Your feedback is important to us and will be used to make improvements and plan future activities for the Community of Practice.

Completing the assessment is voluntary and takes approximately 15 minutes. Please complete the assessment in a single session as you will not be able to save it and return to it later.

Results of the assessment will be aggregated and shared with CDC and the NSSP Community of Practice membership via a final report and/or webinar. CDC and CSTE will not share any identifying information about individual respondents or health departments/agencies.

If you have questions regarding the assessment or the NSSP Community of Practice, please contact Becca Tugan at rtugan@cste.org.

Thank you for your participation.

Becca Tugan, MPH
Program Analyst II
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)

Survey

1. Which best describes the type of organization in which you work?

   • State Health Agency

   • Local Health Agency

   • Federal Agency

   • Territorial Health Agency

   • Tribal Epidemiology Center

   • Tribal Health Department

   • Tribal Clinic

   • Academic Institution

   • Healthcare

   • For-profit

   • Non-profit

   • Other, specify: [open-ended text field]

2. Which of the following best describes your role in relation to syndromic surveillance? Select all that apply.

• BioSense Platform Site Administrator

• Data Analyst

• Environmental Health specialist

• Emergency Preparedness and Response specialist

• Epidemiologist

• Health Communicator

• HL7 Data Analyst

• IT/Informatics specialist

• Physician/Medical Officer

• Policy Analyst

• Program Evaluator

• Program Manager/Coordinator

• Project Officer

• Statistician

• Web manager/developer

• Other, specify: [open-ended text field]

3. How long have you been working in public health?

   • Less than 1 year

   • 1-<5 Years

   • 5-<10 Years

   • 10 or more years

4. Overall, how long have you been working in syndromic surveillance (even if it’s only part of your role)?

   • Less than 1 year

   • 1-<5 Years

   • 5-<10 Years

   • 10 or more years

5. Do you regularly attend (at least once every 3 months) the monthly NSSP Community of Practice call/webinar on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 12pm-1:30pm Eastern Time?

   • Yes

   • No [selecting ‘No’ displays Question 7]

6. How satisfied are you with the following aspects of the monthly NSSP Community of Practice call/webinar?

	Satisfied	Somewhat satisfied	Somewhat dissatisfied	Dissatisfied
The video conferencing tool (Zoom)
The NSSP updates provided by CDC NSSP staff
The CSTE updates provided by CSTE Staff
The variety of syndromic surveillance presentations
The length of the call/webinar (90 mins.)
The amount of time allotted for Q&A
The ability to view the call/webinar slides and recording on the Knowledge Repository following the meeting
The jurisdiction introduction presentations given by CoP members
Please explain why you selected being “somewhat dissatisfied” or “dissatisfied” with any of the above aspects of the monthly NSSP Community of Practice call/webinar. [open-ended text field] [displays only if ‘Somewhat dissatisfied’ OR ‘Dissatisfied’ selected at least once (1) within Question 6]

7. Please explain why not. Select all that apply. [Question displayed only if ‘No’ selected for Question 5]

• I was not aware of the monthly NSSP Community of Practice call/webinar.

• The day of the week (fourth Wednesday of the month) is inconvenient for me.

• The time of the call (from 12pm-1:30pm Eastern Time) is inconvenient for me.

• I don’t have the time.

• The presentations on the webinars rarely interest me or relate to my work.

• Other, specify: [open-ended text field]

8. Which syndromic surveillance-related topic(s) would you like highlighted on future NSSP Community of Practice monthly calls/webinars? Select all that apply.

• Infectious disease

• Chronic disease

• Injury prevention

• Mental/Behavioral health

• Environmental health

• Public health emergency preparedness and response

• Emerging diseases or conditions

• BioSense platform enhancements/new functionalities

• Updates from the NSSP Community of Practice subcommittees and workgroups

• Data sharing barriers between jurisdictions

• Data sharing for public use

• Data analytics

• Data visualization

• Data quality

• Health equity

• Overdose Surveillance

• Partnerships and collaborations

• New data sources

• Other, specify: [open-ended text field]

9. Please provide any feedback on how the monthly NSSP Community of Practice call/webinar can be improved. [open-ended text field]

10. Do you participate in any of the following NSSP Community of Practice subcommittees, workgroups or user groups? Select all that apply.

• Data Quality Subcommittee (DQ)

• Syndrome Definition Subcommittee (SD)

• Syndromic Surveillance Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Subcommittee (SPHERR)

• Analytic Tools for Routine Health Surveillance Subcommittee

• SHARE Subcommittee

• NSSP R User Group

• NSSP ESSENCE User Group

• None [exclusive choice – cannot be selected with other Question 10 choices]

11. Through being a member of the NSSP Community of Practice, to what extent…

	To a great extent	To a moderate extent	To a small extent	Not at all
Has your knowledge of syndromic surveillance increased?
Have you made new syndromic surveillance contacts?
Have you been able to get help with solving syndromic surveillance related issues/problems?
Have you been better able to find syndromic surveillance resources?
Have your leadership skills improved?
Have you been able to transfer what you heard/learned back to your team or department/agency?
Have you been able to increase interjurisdictional collaborations?
Have you been able to increase interjurisdictional data sharing?
Have you been able to increase collaborations between CDC and your jurisdiction?
Have you been able to increase data sharing between CDC and your jurisdiction?

12. To what extent do you think the NSSP Community of Practice…

	To a great extent	To a moderate extent	To a small extent	Not sure
Has leveraged the expertise and resources of its members?
Has done a good job of promoting the utility and application of syndromic surveillance?
Has helped to integrate syndromic surveillance into everyday public health practice?
Has created an inclusive and welcoming environment where members feel comfortable expressing their opinion?
Has helped build syndromic surveillance expertise and capacity in your jurisdiction/department/agency?
Has helped to increase collaboration and data sharing?

13. Which of the following do you want the NSSP Community of Practice to provide? Select all that apply.

• Syndromic surveillance-specific tools, dashboards, or methods

• Syndromic surveillance-related trainings

• Data sharing workshops

• Specific activities and resources for new syndromic surveillance users

• One-on-one consultations/problem solving with subject matter experts

• Recognition for contributions and participation in the NSSP Community of Practice

• A designated venue for getting member’s input on relevant decisions affecting the entire NSSP Community of Practice

• Presentations from other federal agencies (DoD, Veterans Affairs, SAMHSA, or others)

• Presentations from other public health organizations (non-profits, academia, or others)

• Regional workshops/meetings

• Other, specify: [open-ended text field]

14. If you were to participate in a regional workshop/meeting what topics would be helpful to have on the agenda? [open-ended text field] [Question 14 displayed only if ‘Regional workshops/meetings’ selected in Question 13]

15. What format would you prefer for a regional workshop/meeting? [Question 15 displayed only if ‘Regional workshops/meetings’ selected in Question 13]

    • Virtual

    • In-person

16. Would funding be a barrier to attending an in-person regional workshop/meeting? [Question 16 displayed only if ‘Regional workshops/meetings’ selected in Question 13]

    • Yes

    • No

    • Unsure

17. Overall, how satisfied are you with your membership in the NSSP Community of Practice?

    • Satisfied

    • Somewhat satisfied

    • Somewhat dissatisfied

    • Dissatisfied

18. Please explain why you selected being “somewhat dissatisfied” or “dissatisfied” with your membership in the NSSP Community of Practice. [open-ended text field] [displays only if ‘Somewhat dissatisfied’ OR ‘Dissatisfied’ selected for Question 17]

19. Do you have any additional feedback to provide on your experience with the NSSP Community of Practice? [open-ended text field]

20. How important are the following NSSP Community of Practice resources in helping you stay current in syndromic surveillance?

	Critical	Important	Somewhat important	Not important	Not aware of this resource	Aware of this resource but have not used
NSSP CoP Knowledge Repository
CDC NSSP Technical Resource Center
CSTE NSSP CoP Webpage
Monthly NSSP Newsletter
NSSP CoP Slack Channel
CSTE NSSP CoP Email Communications

21. How often do you use the following NSSP Community of Practice Knowledge Repository-related tools?

	Frequently	Occasionally	Rarely	Not aware of this resource	Aware of this resource but have not used
NSSP CoP monthly meeting recordings
NSSP CoP subcommittee/user group meeting recordings
Syndrome definition library
Stories of surveillance in action
Use case library
Syndromic surveillance webinar library
Trending topics
The “Search All” function to find other content

22. Please select up to 5 topics that reflect your most important syndromic surveillance training needs. [validation allows for respondents to select between 1-5 choices for Question 22]

• Data analytics (analyzing and interpreting raw data to help with public health decision making)

• Data visualization (graphs, tables, dashboards)

• Recognizing and improving data quality

• Developing and evaluating new syndromes

• Strategies to increase data sharing

• Conducting an after-action review, hotwash, and implementing corrective actions

• Data mining, machine learning, advanced API training

• Developing and writing success stories

• Using syndromic surveillance in a national response

• NSSP ESSENCE (beginner to intermediate)

• NSSP ESSENCE (advanced)

• NSSP R (beginner to intermediate)

• NSSP R (advanced)

• Communicating syndromic surveillance findings

• Other, specify: [open-ended text field]

23. Please rank the training topics you selected in the previous question by priority with 1 being the highest priority. [choices from Question 22 will be carried forward to Question 23]

24. Please provide any additional comments on issues or concerns we might not have addressed in this assessment. [open-ended text field]

Thank you for participating in this assessment. Your input will help improve the NSSP Community of Practice.

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