This chapter outlines the improved communicable disease surveillance and response using the types of new technology. It significantly reduces preventable morbidity and mortality during outbreaks, pandemics or bioterrorism attacks, enhance our understanding of the epidemiology and pathogenesis of many diseases and contribute to development of better diagnostics, antimicrobial agents, and vaccines. Networked electronic medical records (EMR) are predicted to improve healthcare quality, efficiency and safety and reduce costs of medical care. Anonymous data can be used to monitor geographic or temporal changes in disease rates, but personal identifiers are essential to trace and protect contacts and investigate outbreaks. In practice, this is generally accepted, because it is recognized to be necessary for public safety and assumed to be confidential, usually correctly. The potential benefits of new diagnostic and strain-typing systems will be limited unless results are interpreted in conjunction with relevant clinical and epidemiological information, reported and analyzed automatically in real-time and followed by timely clinical and public health action.