Past, Present and Future of PHIN Vocabulary & Messaging Community of Practice (VM CoP)

Recognizing the need for new strategies to develop and adopt public health vocabulary standards, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff created a Public Health Vocabulary Community of Practice (PHVCoP). The PHVCoP was originally organized around the following goals for the Agency:  identify vocabulary development activities throughout the organization; openly share vocabulary work, educate members about the breadth of biomedical vocabulary standards; and coalesce around collaboration points and encourage standards adoption.  In opening up the Community to CDC's public health partners, goals were expanded to include sharing across US public health entities and exploring collaborations nationally. In 2008, the PHVCoP joined with their colleagues in the Messaging domain to form the PHIN Vocabulary and Messaging CoP (VM CoP.) This community session will explore the history, and current work of the VM CoP, highlighting accomplishments, community growth, and lessons learned, and will then include a community discussion of the VM CoP's strategic priorities for FY 2010.