Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists

The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) promotes the effective use of epidemiologic data to guide public health practice and improve health. CSTE accomplishes this by supporting the use of effective public health surveillance and good epidemiologic practice through training, capacity development, and peer consultation, developing standards for practice, and advocating for resources and scientifically based policy.

CSTE is a professional association of public health epidemiologists in states and territories working together to detect, prevent, and control conditions of public health significance, first organized in the early 1950s in response to the need to have at least one person in each state and territory responsible for public health surveillance. Since then, its membership has grown to include 400 epidemiologists in all U.S. states and territories, Canada, and Great Britain.

Partnership Activities

CDC has collaborated with CSTE on the Chronic Disease Indicators since the project's beginning in the mid-1990s. The Chronic Disease Indicators project is a public health initiative intended to increase the consistency and availability of chronic disease surveillance data at the state and federal levels. In this case, the term indicator describes a public health surveillance tool that defines a measure of health (such as the occurrence of disease) or a factor associated with health (such as smoking as a risk factor) in a population. Prior to the beginning of the project, the collection and reporting of some data by local and state governments was not standardized. Reports by the Institute of Medicine, the National Research Council (NRC), and CSTE highlighted the need for standardized data at the state and federal level. Epidemiologists and other public health professionals can use this data to enhance surveillance, generate hypotheses, and serve as reference material as they develop, implement, and evaluate public health efforts. CDC continues to provide technical assistance in developing and reviewing chronic disease indicators for cancer.

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
2872 Woodcock Boulevard, Suite 303
Atlanta, GA 30341
Telephone: (770) 458-3811
Fax: (770) 458-8516
www.cste.org*

*Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.