How much of the $550M Granted to CDC's Data Modernization Has been Allocated To VAERS?

It's ridiculous VAERS does not have a interactive dashboard and more already...

Dec 24, 2024

How much money has been granted for EDAV a critical part of CDC's Data Modernization efforts?

Grok says:

The exact amount of money specifically granted for the Enterprise Data, Analytics, and Visualization (EDAV) component of the CDC's Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) is not explicitly stated in the available information. However, the broader context of funding for the DMI can provide some insight:
The CDC received $50 million in FY 2020 dedicated to data modernization, marking the first significant step towards improving core surveillance capabilities and addressing data modernization challenges.
Further funding was provided through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, which allocated an additional $500 million to CDC to advance surveillance and analytics infrastructure, including the establishment of a forecasting center for emerging biological threats.
Over the years, Congress has dedicated various amounts to continue these efforts, with mentions of $100 million in FY 2022 and $175 million in FY 2023 for modernizing public health data surveillance and analytics.
While these funds contribute to the overall Data Modernization Initiative, specific allocations to EDAV are not detailed in the provided sources. EDAV is described as a critical part of these efforts, but the exact financial commitment to EDAV alone would require more specific financial reports or direct statements from the CDC or related governmental bodies.

What EDAV does:

Connects people with data faster. It does this in a few ways. EDAV:

Hosts tools that support the analytics work of over 3,500 people.
Stores data on a common platform that is accessible to CDC's data scientists and partners.
Simplifies complex data analysis steps.
Automates repeatable tasks, such as dashboard updates, freeing up staff time and resources.

Keeps data secure. Data represent people, and the privacy of people's information is critically important to CDC. EDAV is hosted on CDC's Cloud to ensure data are shared securely and that privacy is protected.

Saves time and money. EDAV services can quickly and easily scale up to meet surges in demand for data science and engineering tools, such as during a disease outbreak. The services can also scale down quickly, saving funds when demand decreases or an outbreak ends.

Trains CDC's staff on new tools. EDAV hosts a Data Academy that offers training designed to help our workforce build their data science skills, including self-paced courses in Power BI, R, Socrata, Tableau, Databricks, Azure Data Factory, and more.

Changes how CDC works. For the first time, EDAV offers CDC's experts a common set of tools that can be used for any disease or condition. It's ready to handle "big data," can bring in entirely new sources of data like social media feeds, and enables CDC's scientists to create interactive dashboards and apply technologies like artificial intelligence for deeper analysis.

EDAV in Action

Below are just a few examples of how EDAV is already connecting people with the data they need to make decisions and improve public health.

Connecting data to help refugees and US health partners. EDAV connected US health partners caring for Afghan refugees with information about refugees' health status and vaccination history. This connection helped avoid repeat testing and unnecessary vaccinations, and prioritized follow-up care for people in need. This also provided accessible vaccination information to states for refugees enrolling in schools and jobs.

Reducing reporting times from days to minutes. EDAV allowed CDC to evaluate U.S. Customs and Border Protection travel trends in near real-time through automated data processing. Data that usually took days to compile was ready in minutes to use for analysis and provide updates on the threat of emerging diseases in the United States.

Collaborating with partners to find infectious disease patterns. EDAV built a data process allowing external partners of Tuberculosis Epidemiologic Studies Consortium to work with large datasets on the platform. This helps CDC and external partners better understand how latent tuberculosis (with no symptoms) affects patients, as well as how to improve patient care.

CDC Front Door

Streamlining how public health data comes into CDC

Overview

Right now, multiple pathways and processes are used to bring data into CDC. This increases the amount of time and effort it takes our partners to submit their data. The result is slower data that puts limits on public health decision-making.

We are creating a vision for the North Star Architecture, we are creating a single-entry point for data to come into the agency, called the "CDC Front Door." While the specifics of the CDC Front Door are still in development, this page aims to provide you with a basic overview of what it means and where we are now.

What is the CDC Front Door?

The CDC Front Door is a single point of entry that the public health community can use to send data, as-is, to CDC. This digital tool can be used by CDC and public health partners at state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) levels. In the future, this tool will allow for data exchange in both directions.

The CDC Front Door is one element of the North Star Architecture, which is our blueprint for a sustainable, response-ready public health ecosystem. This new blueprint is guiding CDC in the development of shared datasets and readily available tools to enable better, faster, more actionable insights at all levels of public health.

Problems the CDC Front Door will help solve

Today, reporting different public health conditions to CDC can be a difficult and time-consuming process.

There are many ways for data to enter CDC and often the processes and technical requirements vary from one entryway to another.
When data submitters send data to CDC, sometimes it is not clear if the transfer was successful or not.
Once data is received by programs, additional steps are needed to store data and prepare the data for analysis. Many CDC programs handle these steps differently, and some processes are done manually.

The CDC Front Door is designed to:

Standardize and streamline how data is submitted to CDC
Accept multiple data formats (e.g., HL7® v2, FHIR®, CSV), data types and sources (e.g., lab, case, hospital) for any amount of data.
Keep data secure by using modern APIs that make sure data are transferred safely and accessed only by approved users.
Track data status by providing automatic updates on data transfer progress to data submitters and CDC programs. Senders and receivers will know if there are problems with data submission in near real time.
Make data available faster to approved CDC programs for storage and analysis within minutes after it is submitted.

How the CDC Front Door can help public health

Overall, the CDC Front Door makes data reporting easier and faster by reducing the number of locations where data is submitted to CDC and providing more flexibility on the ways the data can be formatted. It also uses technology that supports a near real-time data feedback loop.

Benefits for specific groups

STLTs

Reduced reporting burden and a streamlined experience, resulting in more time to focus on other public health activities
Quicker confirmation that data was sent successfully to CDC
Ability to send data as-is, in multiple formats, to one place
Fewer data pipelines to manage

Data providers (e.g., hospitals, healthcare providers, labs)

Simplified data sharing and more automated methods to comply with regulations

CDC programs

Ability to easily accept data in multiple data formats
Quicker access to data for analysis, usually within minutes after submission
Fewer methods for receiving data, leading to a more resilient and cost-effective IT infrastructure

What's next for the CDC Front Door?

A future enhancement to the CDC Front Door is to make it bi-directional. This means that not only can data be submitted to CDC, but users could receive data from CDC through the same Front Door.

When can I start using the CDC Front Door?

The CDC Front Door is not ready for use right now. A preliminary version of the CDC Front Door is being pilot tested using a product called Enterprise Data Exchange (DEX).

Lessons learned from the pilot tests will be used to improve the CDC Front Door before we make it available for broader use. Updates and further information will be shared on this website as they become available.

Stay involved

CDC provides multiple ways to stay up to date on the CDC Front Door and other data modernization activities.

Check the data modernization website regularly for updates and information about webinars or other opportunities to learn more and contribute to CDC's data modernization efforts.
Join our user panel: Email DataEngagement@cdc.gov to sign up to be a part of our user panel. Members of the user panel may be invited to participate in focus groups, usability testing, informational interviews, or other forums to provide feedback on ideas and products.

Read more from CDC about this data modernization here:

https://www.cdc.gov/data-modernization/php/technologies/edav.html

The CDC WONDER (Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research) system would be one of the main areas this blub is talking about. VAERS is just one data set within a this larger system:

In the minutiae of the details they speak about the software and data visualization tools (Tableau) vaersaware.com uses to produce our interactive dashboards! CDC was not using Tableau prior to ~2022 but are definitely using it now for some of their interactive dashboards and graphs like this:

These dashboards demonstrate the CDC's utilization of Tableau for creating interactive, user-friendly data visualization tools that support public health research, policy-making, and public awareness.

So the original question was, will CDC ever use any of at least $550M dollars to upgrade VAERS? I’m not just talking about a cheesy underpowered interactive dashboard lacking many filters, but a robust and possible semi AI driven system to ethically cleanse data, extract MedDRA codes in addition to visualizing snappy graphs like PRR and ROR analysis?

The Eagle’s answer is probably not! Will Bobby Kennedy Jr have the wisdom to know the difference? I pray to Jesus hope so. Maybe one of you CHD people that read my stuff can bookmark this article for him down the road?

All I know is I’ll be screaming bloody murder at anybody sitting a top the HHS about this “modernization” as it relates to VAERS, VSAFE, and vaccines in general.

Thank you Dr. Brian Hooker for inspiring me to finally write-up this article, as it’s been on my to-do list for a long while. I think I thoroughly answered Brian’s original question to me about unsupervised dynamic extraction of ICD-10 and/or MedDRA codes from a summary narrative and/or all encounter data. My answer is yes I have and for about at least a decade now. God Bless and Merry Christmas. -The Eagle