Health Protection Goals Fact Sheet

 

Goals for the 21st Century

 

As America has entered a new millennium, new health and safety challenges have emerged:

• Emerging infectious diseases (SARS, monkeypox, pandemic influenza)
• Terrorism
• Environmental threats (hurricanes, wildfires, toxic chemical spills)
• Aging population
• Lifestyle choices (tobacco use, poor nutrition, lack of physical fitness)

 

CDC is adapting to meet these new challenges. New strategies, new innovations, and new goals bring new focus to the agency’s work, allowing CDC to do even more to protect and improve health.

 

Strategy First

 

CDC has defined six key strategies to guide its decisions and priorities so that it can achieve the health protection goals:

 

Health Impact Focus: Align CDC's staff, strategies, goals, investments, and performance to maximize impact on the population's health and safety.

 

Customer-centricity: Market what people want and need to make choices about health.

 

Public Health Research: Create and disseminate the knowledge and innovations people need to protect their health now and in the future.

 

Leadership: Leverage CDC’s unique expertise, partnerships and networks to improve the public health system.

 

Global Health Impact: Extend CDC’s knowledge and tools to promote health protection around the world.

 

Accountability: Sustain people’s trust and confidence by making the most efficient and effective use of their investment in CDC.

 

Health Protection Goals

 

Working to achieve goals is nothing new at CDC. For years, we have worked to achieve HHS goals, Healthy People goals, and GPRA performance standards. CDC is now focusing on achieving four overarching Health Protection Goals to become a more performance-based agency focusing on healthy people, healthy places, preparedness, and global health.

 

Creating these agency wide goals has taken careful consideration, and CDC is now in the process of developing goal action plans to align its resources with its priorities.

 

CDC’s new health protection goals address four themes:

 

• Healthy People in Every Stage of Life
  
  
• Healthy People in Healthy Places
  
  
• People Prepared for Emerging Health Threats
  
  
• Healthy People in a Healthy World

 

Creating these agency-wide goals has taken time, and the process has greatly benefited from much internal and external input. Now CDC is ready to create the action plans, with measurable objectives and activities to achieve them.

 

Achieving the Health Protection Goals

 

Over the last two years, CDC has reorganized its Centers, Institutes, and Offices (CIOs) to meet 21st century health and safety threats. CDC now is a more integrated, adaptable, and responsive agency. CDC Centers continue to conduct and support the excellent science that drives the agency’s work.

 

CDC’s Coordinating Centers and Offices are improving coordination and networking inside and outside CDC and will be the home for the Goal Action Plan teams. These teams, led by CDC senior staff, bring together experts from inside and outside the agency to develop measurable objectives and priority actions to achieve health protection goals. The teams will seek input and review from CDC’s Division and Center leaders, the Department of Health and Human Services, CDC’s Advisory Committees and partners, and the public, before final action plans are approved. As always, CDC’s Divisions and Centers will be responsible for planning activities and projects, overseeing their quality, managing them, and measuring their results.

 

The goals action planning and implementation cycle will align with the federal budget cycle, and CDC will continue to be guided by Congressional intent to be sure that categorical disease dollars target the appropriate activities. Over time, these health protection goals will allow CDC to objectively measure and clearly demonstrate the impact of its health protection activities, and can help inform the public, the administration, Congress, partners and stakeholders about the state of the public’s health.

 

For More Information

 

A complete list of CDC’s goals

 

Questions and Answers about Health Protection Goals and Goal Action Plans at CDC are also available and updated regularly to incorporate new questions and information as the process of implementing these goals evolves.

To provide feedback on CDC’s strategies, objectives, and research that support these health protection goals, send email to CDCGoals@cdc.gov.

 

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