The Israel Center for Disease Control (ICDC) was established in 1994 and is part of the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH). ICDC provides decision makers in the MoH with updated high quality data on different aspects of public health. The ICDC main objectives are to identify health areas which lack essential data, establish new health-related databases, provide ongoing professional support for users of existing databases, undertake applied research in specific areas of public health, carry out national health surveys, report on the health status of the population, present policy alternatives to decision-makers in MOH, and carry out unusual morbidity surveillance.

The major focus of the ICDC for the year 2011 is to assist the MOoH in establishing itself as a leading, innovative health policy maker and to promote health services quality. Three corresponding goals for 2011 are (1) to expand the information on the health status of the Israeli population, using existing databases, such as the HMOs, that were not fully explored or used by the MOH until now; (2) to upgrade the ICDC status as an independent public health research institute; (3) to enhance quality assurance in rehabilitation services in Israel.

The ICDC took active part in monitoring the pandemic influenza in Israel on winter 2009-2010, including syndromic surveillance, serologic surveillance, distribution of weekly reports, regular updates of the pandemia guidelines according to the WHO and other agencies, distribution of the updated guidelines on a daily basis, and activating a hotline for medical teams. The ICDC also has been carrying out a national survey on rehabilitation access and outcomes for patients diagnosed with hip fracture and patients diagnosed with CVA. The survey is continuing in 2011, and its findings will be carefully studied and implemented in order to reduce health inequities, improve medical care, and provide appropriate tertiary prevention.  In addition, the ICDC has published a report on the burden of end stage renal failure disease and on dialysis in Israel, emphasizing the role of diabetes mellitus in the growing prevalence of the disease. One of the consequences is defining diabetes mellitus as a major national health problem that should be appropriately addressed by decision makes in the Ministry of Health.