In the backdrop of IDWeek in Atlanta that took place between October 19 to 22, 2025, a new playbook for infection prevention was unfurled by former CDC director Tom Frieden. Currently the President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, Frieden displayed this innovative method, ‘See. Believe. Create.’ in his conversation with Infection Control Today before the conference. He believes this strategy can facilitate faster detection of outbreaks, reversal drug resistance, and substantially reduce hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), thereby saving millions of lives.
The strategy is complemented by the 7-1-7 target—7 days to locate an outbreak, 1 to notify, and 7 to administer control measures. Frieden’s first step, ‘See the Invisible,’ touts that the inherent strength of public health is in identifying unnoticed factors and transforming those findings into actionable plans. He emphasizes the effective utilization of surveillance data, regular performance assessment and adaptation of strategies when the current results are not promising.
The second step, ‘Believe Change Is Possible,’ urges professionals to shift their mindset towards identifying infections we usually perceive as inevitable to being preventable. The final step, ‘Create a Disciplined, Organized Response,’ calls for translating belief into action via the employment of structured, easily-communicable strategies to overcome any interruptions to progress.
Frieden’s 3-step strategy owes its lineage to as far back as 1662 when public health surveillance began. He entails his experiences handling issues like multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, Ebola, the spread of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, and other resistant organisms to corroborate that the guided vision, belief in change, and a disciplined plan result in significant progress. Frieden’s company, Resolve to Save Lives, condensed this approach into a quantifiable target for outbreak detection and control known as the 7-1-7 policy which reinforces the perspective to ‘find a problem, fix a problem’. For everyone working in infection prevention, Frieden’s message is not just a challenge but a call to action to use data to enhance performances and continually contrive a healthier future.