CPSC Modernizes Decades-Old Injury Surveillance System to Protect More Americans, Faster

NEISS-R will expand nationwide coverage, accelerate hazard detection, and strengthen privacy protections

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today announced a significant modernization of the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), the nation's principal system for tracking consumer product-related injuries. This effort is expected to become fully effective by the beginning of 2027.

For more than five decades, NEISS served as an important source of consumer product injury data. Designed in 1972 for a paper-record era, the system relied on labor-intensive manual review and coding of medical records from roughly 70 of the nation's more than 5,000 hospital emergency departments, leaving 14 states without participating hospitals. Those limitations restricted the system's geographic reach, slowed analysis, and reduced the Commission's ability to identify rare and rapidly emerging product hazards.

The modernized system-NEISS-Remodel, or NEISS-R- is being implemented to replace that outdated model with secure, standardized electronic data exchange, broader geographic representation, and significantly faster injury surveillance.

Nationwide coverage for the first time. NEISS-R will expand the surveillance network across all 50 states, adding hospitals in Alaska, Hawaii, the Mountain West, and northern states that were previously underrepresented or not represented at all. This more geographically balanced sample will strengthen the Commission's ability to detect product hazards unique to particular regions and improve the statistical reliability of the nation's injury data.

Faster hazard detection, more lives saved. By leveraging modern technology and the country's existing electronic health records infrastructure, NEISS-R will enable CPSC to spot rare and rapidly emerging hazards far sooner than the legacy system allowed. Earlier detection will mean earlier warnings, recalls, and protective action-reducing product-related injuries before they multiply.

Privacy and security by design. NEISS-R will exchange data through a federally designated Qualified Health Information Network, supported by contractual privacy requirements and standardized security safeguards. The system is built on privacy-by-design principles: it will limit collection and retention to the minimum data necessary for CPSC's statutory mission, support de-identification before information reaches CPSC, and reduce manual handling of sensitive records. CPSC has also transitioned from an on-premises environment to a modern, cloud-based architecture built on standardized federal security controls-creating a more secure and privacy-centered foundation for injury surveillance.

A better system for consumers and taxpayers. NEISS-R will modernize a system designed for the last century, making it more timely, more accurate, and more cost-effective. The result will be stronger consumer product oversight and a smarter use of public resources in service of CPSC's core mission: keeping American families safe.