Views on increased federal access to state and local National Syndromic Surveillance Program data: a nominal group technique study with state and local epidemiologists

Table 1 State and local epidemiologists’ evaluation of benefits of increased federal access to NSSP data, 2021

Identified Benefit^a	Mean importance Likert score^b	Rank 1 (n)	Rank 2 (n)	Rank 3 (n)	Aggregate rank score^c
Improved cross-jurisdiction collaboration efforts	4.53	6	3	3	27
Improved syndromic surveillance practice	4.07	2	7	3	23
Technical assistance + expertise	3.53	4	2	1	17
Enhanced state capacity	3.73	2	1	5	13
Enhanced federal surveillance capacity (e.g., providing national pictures, completing data requests normally handled by states, increased cross-jurisdictional awareness)	3.40	1	2	3	10

Themes were generated in response to the question: “In what ways can increased federal access to state syndromic surveillance data at the state or local level benefit or support state public health activities?”
^aExample ideas for each theme can be found in the Supplemental materials
^bIn calculating the mean Likert scores, options were scored 1–5 with Very Important = 5, Important = 4, Moderately Important = 3, Slightly Important = 2, Not Important = 1
^cIn calculating the rank score, items ranked 1, 2, and 3 were assigned scores of 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The aggregate rank score is the sum of all respondents’ ranking scores

ISSN: 1471-2458