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Do You Work in Disease Intervention?

You are key to strengthening the disease intervention workforce.

Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Certification Program Funding Opportunities

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in cooperation with the Association for Schools and Programs for Public Health (ASPPH) and the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE), is supporting the National DIS Certification Project by developing a voluntary Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Certification program. The purpose of the DIS Certification is to improve clinical and public health outcomes through national partnerships to prevent and control emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats. The project aims to:

  • Standardize and validate knowledge, skills, and abilities of disease intervention professionals, increase quality and consistency of service delivery, support the recruitment and retention of a diverse disease intervention workforce.  
  • Recruit, train, and retain the disease intervention workforce and strengthen pathways from educational institutions to the disease intervention workforce and DIS Certification. 

ASPPH seeks to identify CEPH-accredited, ASPPH-member schools and programs of public health or institutional members of the ASPPH Undergraduate Network for Academic Public Health to collaborate with in support of the CDC’s National DIS Certification Project.  

Click here to learn more about available funding opportunities designed to advance public health initiatives and professional training. 

Coming Soon: Disease Intervention Specialist Certification

The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health is working with the National Board of Public Health Examiners to develop the National Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Certification Program that will improve public health and clinical outcomes to prevent and control emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats through the development of national practice standards and core competencies of the disease intervention workforce. “The goal of certification of the DIS workforce is to improve public health services provided to communities by DIS through a high quality, standardized approach to the professional development of this workforce. Certification can standardize and validate the knowledge, skills, and abilities of DIS; drive the standardization and improvement of training; increase the quality and consistency of service delivery and: increase recognition of the skills and abilities of DIS” (Public Health Accreditation Board, 2017). 

ASPPH has been funded through CDC CK20-2003 to develop and implement the DIS Certification and the infrastructure in which it can succeed. Disease intervention professionals are vital members of the national public health workforce, reducing community spread of infectious diseases through contact tracing, partner services, health education, and facilitating access to care. 

Disease Intervention Job Task Analysis

An important step in developing a national Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Certification Program is performing a job task analysis. A job tasks analysis involves systematically identifying and documenting the specific responsibilities associated with a particular job or role within an organization to inform certification examination development. Steps in a job task analysis include: 

  1. Convening subject matter experts to identify job duties
  2. Refining task and knowledge statements
  3. Creating and administering a survey to current employees to validate the role and function of the particular job 
  4. Obtaining demographic and firmographic information to document the survey sample 
  5. Obtaining importance and performance ratings for tasks and knowledge
  6. Using the job task analysis survey results to build a valid and credible certification examination.

Learn more about the job task analysis here.

Also Coming Soon: Disease Intervention Job Task Analysis Survey

The purpose of the survey is to better understand what tasks people in disease intervention do the most and which tasks they believe are the most important to their work. This information will give employers, funders, academic institutions, and training programs better insight into what a wide range of disease intervention jobs entail in reality and what might be needed to best support people in these roles. 

The survey asks people working in disease intervention how often they perform the identified job tasks and how important they believe each task is to their job. The survey also asks demographic questions to capture respondents’ job titles and occupations, where they work, and better understand workforce diversity and training needs.

Sign up here to be the first to know when the survey opens!

We want to hear from everyone performing disease intervention responsibilities and tasks in their role, including people working in non-governmental settings, as well as state, Tribal, local, territorial health departments. Please take the survey if your health department employment status matches one of the following: 

  • Permanent staff employed directly by a health department or Federal health agency 
  • Contractor providing third party services to a health department or Federal health agency 
  • Interns employed directly by a health department or Federal health agency 
  • Federal employees detailed to a health department or Federal health agency 
  • Temporary staff employed directly by a health department or Federal health agency

YOUR job is important, and YOU are an integral member of the disease intervention workforce. Only YOU know what you do every day and how important those duties are to your job. It is important that we capture as many voices from as many roles and areas of the country as possible! Represent your role and have your voice heard by taking the survey!

Results will be collected and analyzed to inform decision-making and assist in the development of the DIS Certification Program, including the content outline for the certification exam, training and study preparation materials, and associated educational materials.

What Does the Survey Look Like?

Statement of Funding

This Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) Job Task Analysis is supported by Cooperative Agreement CK20-2003, “Improving Clinical and Public
Health Outcomes through National Partnerships to Prevent and Control Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Disease Threats,” from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, awarded to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health and sub-awarded to the
National Board of Public Health Examiners. The contents are solely the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the
official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.