The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) developed the Competencies for Applied Epidemiologists in Governmental Public Health Agencies (applied epidemiology competencies or AECs for short) to improve the practice of epidemiology within the public health system. The document defines the discipline of applied epidemiology and describes expected competencies for different levels of practicing epidemiologists working in government public health agencies. This document describes the rationale for developing the AECs and provides an overview of the participants, the development process, the AECs, their target audience, and the intended uses by those audiences.

CDC, the lead federal governmental agency on this project, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has responsibility for prevention ...