Niall Brennan to Advise CDC Director on Data Modernization Efforts

Niall Brennan has accepted the role of senior adviser to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. He is expected to guide CDC Director Mandy Cohen on a multi-year data modernization initiative worth more than $1 billion.

The agency aims to upgrade federal and state public health data and surveillance infrastructure after a high volume of COVID-19 cases overwhelmed systems.

The initiative involves changes to processes, policies and technology to build more resilient systems from siloed public health data, potentially accelerating the delivery of insights for decision-making.

Brennan announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he would focus on ensuring the data modernization initiative’s success.

He previously served as chief analytics and privacy officer at Clarity Health Solutions and, earlier, as president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute.

His last government role was as chief data officer of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he advocated for greater data transparency, Nextgov/FCW reported Friday.

In 2022, the CDC started using a new data analytics and visualization platform. Dan Jernigan, the center’s deputy director for public health science and surveillance, shared that a multi-cloud environment for the platform is being built as part of data modernization efforts.