[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 188 (Friday, September 28, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Page 55217]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-19198]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-07-0636]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 639-5960 or send an e-mail 
to [email protected]. Send written comments to CDC Desk Officer, Office of 
Management and Budget, Washington, DC or by fax to (202) 395-6974. 
Written comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    State-based Evaluation of the Alert Notification Component of CDC's 
Epidemic Information Exchange (Epi-X) Secure Public Health 
Communications Network (OMB No. 0920-0636)--Extension--National Center 
for Health Marketing (NCHM), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    A central component of the CDC's mission is to strengthen the 
nation's public health infrastructure by coordinating public health 
surveillance at CDC and providing domestic and international support 
through scientific communications and terrorism preparedness and 
emergency response. The Epidemic Information Exchange (Epi-X) provides 
CDC and its state and local partners and collaborators with a secure 
public health communications network intended for routine and emergent 
information exchange in a secure environment.
    Great attention has been focused on improving secure public health 
communications networks for the dissemination of critical disease 
outbreak and/or bioterrorism-related events, which may have multi-
jurisdictional involvement and cause disease and death within a short 
time-frame.
    The purpose of the information gathered during this notification 
proficiency testing exercise is to evaluate the extent to which new 
registrants and currently authorized users of the Epidemic Information 
Exchange (Epi-X) are able to utilize alert notification functionality 
to minimize or prevent unnecessary injury or disease-related morbidity 
and mortality through the use of secure communications and rapid 
notification systems. In this case, notification alerts would be sent 
to targeted public health professionals through a `barrage' of office 
cell phone, home telephone, and pager calls to rapidly inform key 
health authorities from multidisciplinary backgrounds and multiple 
jurisdictions of evolving and critical public health information, and 
assist with the decision making process. Presently, the necessity of 
this evaluation process is timely because of ongoing terrorism threats 
and acts perpetrated worldwide.
    The survey information will be gathered through an online 
questionnaire format, and help evaluate user comprehension and facility 
solely with the targeted notification and rapid alerting 
functionalities of Epi-X. The questionnaire will consist of both 
closed- and open-ended items, and will be administered through 
Zoomerang, an online questionnaire program, or as a last resort, by 
telephone. Approximately 2,000 Epi-X users from every state of the 
union will be asked to volunteer input (in a 5-10 question format) 
about their experiences using the alert notification functionalities of 
the Epi-X communications system.
    There will be no cost to respondents, whose participation will be 
strictly voluntary. The total estimated burden hours are 167.

                                           Estimated Annualized Burden
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                                                                                   Number of      Average burden
                         Respondents                              Number of      responses per     per response
                                                                 respondents       respondent       (in hours)
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Public Health Professionals..................................           1,000                1            10/60
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    Dated: September 24, 2007.
Maryam I. Daneshvar,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
 [FR Doc. E7-19198 Filed 9-27-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P