There is an increasing demand for the development of public health information systems that are interoperable by design, to enable public health agencies to respond to current and future public health issues. This session highlights efforts by PHII and the Collaborative Requirements Development Methodology™ (CRDM); NIEM, FHA, and the FHIMS workgroup and demonstrates the benefit of leveraging them to connect communities for improved business process analysis, improved LIMS, and improved clinical decision support and quality healthcare, in addition to supporting other mission areas (such as the law enforcement and emergency management communities) where health information is essential to supporting decision making.