[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 23 (Thursday, February 5, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6159-6160]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-2439]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60 Day-09-09AO]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on 
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects. 
Alternatively, to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and 
instrument, call 404-639-5960 and send comments to Maryam I. Daneshvar, 
CDC Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, 
Georgia 30333; comments may also be sent by e-mail to [email protected].
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have a practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarify of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the

[[Page 6160]]

use of information technology. Written comments should be received 
within 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    State/Territorial Healthcare Situational Awareness and Rapid Survey 
Capability Data Call--New--National Center for Preparedness, Detection, 
and Control of Infectious Diseases (NCPDCID), Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    During public health emergencies, the ability of the nation's 
healthcare system to deliver care needs to be rapidly assessed to 
inform response decisions. Currently, there is no automated system to 
collect and analyze information at the federal level, and the 
capability to achieve situational awareness at the state and regional 
levels varies across the nation--some states have robust systems while 
others have none. The gap in the ability to collect and analyze 
information during a public health emergency across existing systems 
and from jurisdictions without situational awareness capabilities 
limits the response capabilities at all levels; the essential decision-
making information is not available at the federal level, and the state 
and local response agencies will be bombarded with multiple inquiries 
in the midst of a public health emergency.
    Work over the past two years has identified significant 
requirements for the development of this capability; through 
collaboration with stakeholder representatives, the foundation has been 
laid to rapidly progress into the areas of content and system 
development. In order for the development to continue, the technical 
characteristics of state and territory-based systems need to be 
identified so that situational awareness capabilities at the federal 
level can be designed to work in coordination with those existing 
systems. It is essential that specific and standard information is 
collected from all states and territories.
    This data collection will consist of two phases. In the first 
phase, CDC will verify the contact information of the state/territorial 
public health preparedness contact. In the second phase, the state/ 
territory situational awareness data call will be distributed to these 
individuals; the responses provided will be analyzed to develop the 
most effective and efficient federal situational awareness capability.
    This proposed project supports CDC's Preparedness Goal of ``People 
Prepared for Emerging Health Threats,'' specifically the objective to 
``Integrate and enhance existing surveillance systems at the local, 
state, national, and international levels to detect, monitor, report, 
and evaluate public health threats.''
    There are no costs to respondents other than their time to complete 
the data collection.

                                       Estimate of Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
                   Respondents                      respondents    responses per   response  (in    (in hours)
                                                                    respondent        hours)
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State/Territorial Public Health Preparedness                  62               1            5/60               5
 Contact--Contact Verification..................
State/Territorial Public Health Preparedness                  62               1           30/60              31
 Contact--Data Call.............................
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............              36
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    Dated: January 29, 2009.
Maryam I. Daneshvar,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. E9-2439 Filed 2-4-09; 8:45 am]
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