NCHS International Statistics Programs
Bilateral and Multilateral Collaborations

NCHS Fact Sheet, December 2016

PDF Version (1.8 MB)

 

About NCHS

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the nation’s principal health statistics agency, providing data to identify and address health issues. NCHS compiles statistical information to help guide public health and health policy decisions.

Collaborating with other public and private health partners, NCHS employs a variety of data collection mechanisms to obtain accurate information from multiple sources. This process provides a broad perspective to help us understand the population’s health, influences on health, and health outcomes.

 

International Activities at NCHS

NCHS collaborates with countries around the world and participates in a wide range of international initiatives. These programs consist of cooperative ventures on analytical and methodological issues, technical assistance, consultation, training, information exchange, and liaison with multinational agencies. Additionally, NCHS sponsors and hosts international meetings and symposia in order to foster the sharing of scientific information. Through these efforts, NCHS seeks to improve the availability and advance the quality and comparability of health data in the United States and other countries.

There are three fact sheets for the International Statistics Program. In addition to Bilateral and Multilateral Collaborations, there are fact sheets on Collaborations with International Organizations and the WHO Collaborating Center on Disease Classification available on the NCHS website.

 

Bilateral Collaborations

Bilateral activities foster goodwill, strengthen partnerships between collaborating countries, and offer opportunities for comparing data. NCHS’ bilateral collaborations include:

Interchange with Statistics Canada
The collaboration between NCHS and Statistics Canada began in 1999. These two agencies have statistical programs with much in common, including the collection of vital statistics and the conduct of national health population surveys.
Since the collaboration was formed, the agencies have held an annual 2-day “interchange” to share information about common health-related interests, activities, challenges, and achievements.

 

Multilateral Collaborations

These collaborations, which benefit from the input of a variety of countries, help set standards to improve data collection and analysis. NCHS’ multilateral collaborations include:

International Collaborative Effort (ICE) on Injury Statistics and Methodology
An NCHS-initiated collaboration, ICE on Injury Statistics and Methodology provides a forum for injury researchers to exchange ideas and collaborate on the development of standards for injury data collection and analysis to improve international comparability of injury statistics. The organization’s goals are to provide high-quality data to better assess the causes and consequences of injury, differences in injury occurrence over time and place, and the most effective means of injury prevention and control. Over the past 20 years, researchers from more than 40 countries have participated in collaborative projects or attended ICE on Injury Statistics conferences.

International Collaborative Effort on Automating Mortality Statistics
An NCHS-initiated collaboration involving more than 20 countries, ICE on Automating Mortality Statistics shares knowledge of and experience with automated systems for coding mortality information, develops and improves existing automated systems, facilitates the transition to the next revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD–11) for mortality, and establishes mechanisms for technical support of automated systems.

International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement (IGIHM)
The United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand all have significant indigenous populations with similar health problems, and they share deficiencies in indigenous health data. These issues led health researchers; representatives of national statistical agencies, including NCHS; and representatives of indigenous groups to form an international group in 2005 to improve health status measurement of indigenous populations. Several meetings have brought IGIHM members and other experts together to share findings regarding indigenous health status, propose improvements in measurement methodology, and consider related issues, such as social determinants of indigenous health.

 

Special Projects

For further information about NCHS and its programs, visit https://www.cdc.gov/nchs.htm.

For further information on the International Statistics Program, visit https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/isp.htm.