A Modern Approach: Building the Tools that Power Healthy People

As part of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, the city’s Quick Response Team needs information fast. On the scene within 72 hours of an overdose in their area, this team of responders provides overdose prevention supplies and services like naloxone and fentanyl test strips, education on ways to reduce the risk of overdose, referrals to treatment and other services and critical resources for those who have suffered an overdose, saving lives.

But with no software to help them gather the information they need, the team relies on a simple pen and paper spreadsheet slowing their work and increasing the chances of inaccurate data collection and transfer. That is where Maggie Negm comes in.

“I'm building a software application to replace the spreadsheet system they have currently,” said Negm, a software engineer with the CDC Foundation. “That way, when they're out in the field, they can write a summary and gather whatever data they need to document directly into a web application.”

Hired by the CDC Foundation to support the work of the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness, Negm’s first step in designing the application was to learn all she could from those involved in the data chain on what was needed and how the application could best serve the public health agency.

“I had a lot of conversations with the team, learning the context and then taking the research they had gathered and thinking about how to turn it into a software application,” Negm said. “While I was doing that, I was having conversations with the Quick Response Team to understand what they were looking for, what their pain points were with the spreadsheet system that they wanted the web application to solve.”

With no effective existing option in place, the Louisville team decided that building a custom software application was needed. After this application is tested and deployed, Negm says the next stage of the project will come when a data engineer also hired by the CDC Foundation automates the data to be accessible by other teams and departments working alongside the Quick Response Team.

This automation will enable data-driven decision making that can shape the program’s direction, resource allocation and ultimately the health of the community itself, allowing the Louisville public health agency to compile data from a wide variety of sources, clean it up and format it for ready use by the Quick Response Team. This modernized system will allow the team to spend less time collecting and transferring data and more time offering care to residents, linking people to treatment for substance use disorder and expanding access to lifesaving naloxone.

“The data will be accessible wherever they are,” Negm said. “It reduces errors so they get more proper data reporting.”

Maggie Negm’s work is part of the CDC Foundation’s Workforce Acceleration Initiative. Launched in 2024, the initiative is designed to help modernize and integrate the systems our nation’s public health authorities need to rapidly detect and respond to new threats, make more informed and timely decisions and most effectively serve their communities.

In fiscal year 2024-2025, 125 tech and data experts were hired through the Workforce Acceleration Initiative in 49 selected state, tribal, local and territorial public health authorities across the nation. Through these hires, public health is also developing and retaining a cadre of data experts who understand the unique needs of today’s public health authorities and have experience applying their skillsets to current public health data and technology challenges, creating a safer, healthier nation for us all.

The Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI) is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through a cooperative agreement with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) with a financial assistance award totaling $65,945,916 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.