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 2 State and local epidemiologists’ evaluation of concerns of increased federal access to NSSP data, 2021

Identified Concern^a	Mean importance Likert score^b	Rank 1 (n)	Rank 2 (n)	Rank 3 (n)	Aggregate rank score^c
Federal government independently sharing data or initiating public health action without notifying states.	4.60	5	4	1	24
Misinterpretation of data	4.53	5	3	0	21
Privacy and confidentiality concerns, including data sensitivity, restriction of certain fields, and public perception of increased data sharing.	4.47	4	1	1	15
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Issues	4.40	0	4	2	10
Adequacy of and adherence to data sharing rules (including agreements codes of conduct, etc.)	4.53	0	1	5	7
Inadequate, excessive, or inappropriate communication regarding data uses	4.33	1	0	2	5
Publishing the data can decrease jurisdictional credibility	3.27	0	1	2	4
Increasing the burden on jurisdictions	3.47	0	0	2	2
Negative effect on collaborations leading to presentations or publications	3.33	0	1	0	2

Themes were generated in response to the question: “What concerns you about increasing federal access to state syndromic surveillance data at the state or local level?”
^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