Verla Neslund, JD¹, John D. Lisco, MPH, CHES², Susan E. Dietz, RN, MS², Kathy Cahill, MPH², Terrance L. McKinnon, BS³, John R. Moore, RN, PhD, CHES², Jane N. Rohde, MPH², Amanda Tarkington², and Melissa Kraus Taylor, MA⁴. (1) Office of Workforce and Career Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, NE Mailstop K86, Atlanta, GA 30341, 770-488-8387, vjn1@cdc.gov, (2) Office of Strategy and Innovation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Mailstop D-28, Atlanta, GA 30333, (3) CDC Office of Strategy and Innovation, Northrop Grumman Information Technology, 3375 Northeast Expressway, Koger Center/Harvard Building, Atlanta, GA 30341, (4) Strategic Planning and Research Southeast, Porter Novelli, 3348 Peachtree Road, NE, Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30326

As part of the Futures Initiative, CDC’s strategic planning process, persons from inside and outside of CDC worked to gather input directly from employees, current and potential customers, and partners on their thoughts about CDC’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities, and most important emerging health issues. Employee ideas were sought through the first agency-wide employee survey (with a robust 53% response rate), one-on-one interviews, discussion groups, and email responses. Hundreds of partner organization representatives and individual consumers also provided input through one-on-one discussions and meetings of stakeholders. Major themes emerging from the data include recognition of CDC’s strong brand and high regard for work in infectious disease, disease tracking, surveillance, scientific excellence, epidemiology, and staff. A disconnect was acknowledged between customers’ top health concerns (e.g., chronic disease, aging) and their perceptions of the work CDC does (infectious disease). The data show that CDC needs a stronger focus on external communication, including a segmented communication strategy to increase knowledge and utilization of prevention information by customers and partners. In addition, CDC should expand its partnerships to better reach at-risk populations, maximize research opportunities and results, and include business and the private sector as bona fide partners in the public health mission. A strong theme emerging from the data is that CDC needs to enhance its support for and investment in the public health infrastructure and should play a leadership role in a public health agenda including a coordinated strategy between public health and the health care delivery system.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participants wll be able to

(
• Describe the processes used to gather input into CDC's strategic directions setting (
• Define the terms customer, partner, and channel as used in this process (
• State the major themes that arose from the feedback provided by customers, partners, and CDC employees.

Keywords: Communication, Partnerships

Related Web page: www.cdc.gov/futures

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.