Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 50 years of training and service in applied epidemiology

The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) was established in 1951 at the Cent ers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, as a combin ed training and service program in the practice of applied epidemiology. Si nce then, nearly 2,500 professionals have served in this 2-year program of the US Public Health Service. The experience of an EIS Officer has been mod ified because of the increased need for more sophisticated analytical metho ds and the use of microcomputers, as well as CDC's expanded mission into ch ronic diseases, environmental health, occupational health, and injury contr ol. Officers who have entered the EIS in the past 20 years are more likely than their predecessors to stay in public health either at the federal leve l or in state and local health departments. The EIS Program continues to be a critical source for health professionals trained to respond to the deman d for epidemiologic services both domestically and internationally.