Engaging Partners' Experiences Using an Experiential Capture Tool to Share Best Practices

Background

BioSense is a national program intended to improve the nation’s capabilities for conducting real-time biosurveillance and health situational awareness.  As BioSense has evolved, there is an on-going need to share the program’s achievements, best practices, and lessons learned.  Experiential feedback needs to be gathered and shared with program leadership and across regional partners to increase the usefulness of the BioSense application and to help paint a picture of a program’s accomplishments. Examples of feedback that express the value of a program in a compelling and informative way include best practices, experiences, stories, and quotes. They can serve as possible partnership network opportunities for potential participants, stakeholders and media. 

 Methods

The experiential capture tool was developed by gathering feedback through a literature review on existing public health best practice programs, performing interviews with key staff at CDC, and analyzing previous BioIntelligence Center (BIC) public health investigations.

 Results

Examining the results from performing the literature review, conducting informal interviews, and researching our public health partners’ previous use of BioSense led to the development of the experiential capture tool. We identified criteria to feature the best use of the BioSense application. Additionally, we instituted an award mechanism for partners who contributed their stories and supported BioSense program initiatives.  We also learned how to implement an on-line experiential collection tool and how to promote the program to potential partners, media, and internal CDC staff through marketing and outreach activities.

 Conclusion

The BioSense experiential capture tool engages partners across regions to share their best practices to promote public health knowledge and emergency response of a public health event. It also expresses the value of the BioSense program to potential and existing users, partners, and internal CDC staff.  Evaluation activities of the success story capture tool will also be discussed.