Tracking Laboratory Infrastructure in Support of Public Health

Although public health laboratories and the information they generate are essential for public health decision making, there has not been an objective to regularly measure public health laboratory infrastructure until Healthy People 2010. Objective 23-13 calls for the increase of “comprehensive laboratory services to support essential public health services.” When this objective was first advanced, there were no identifiable data sources that could be used to measure comprehensive laboratory services. The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a comprehensive laboratory services survey (CLSS). This survey was based on the premise that comprehensive laboratory services could be measured by assessing the extent to which states fulfilled the core functions for state public health laboratories (MMWR 51:1-8, 2002). The CLSS was first conducted in 2004.As a result of having a data source and creating a baseline for this objective it went from being a developmental objective to a measurable objective. The second version of the CLSS was created in 2006. This second version was improved by: better defining terms; clearly distinguishing whether states were “providing” versus “assuring” services; more equitably balancing the survey among the core functions. With completion of the second version of the CLSS, there are now data that can be used to better track the status of “comprehensive laboratory services to support essential public health services.” Comparison of the findings from the 2004 and 2006 surveys and progress on reaching the 2010 targets will be presented.