BACKGROUND: A key function of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention is to encourage collaboration among organizations committed to preventing heart disease and stroke. The mission of the National Forum's Monitoring and Evaluation Implementation Group (MEIG) includes expanding ans standardizing population-wide data sources and activities. One of the initial charges to the MEIG was to define the necessary content and structure of a national surveillance system for heart disease and stroke prevention. Accordingly, a project team of the MEIG, comprised of experts in the feilds of surveillance and cardiovascular disease management, worked together to develop a manuscript approved as a Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association entitled, " Essential Features of a Surveillance System to Support the Prevention and Management of Heart Disease and Stroke." This article was published in the January 2007 issue of 'Circulation," the scientific journal of the American Heart Association.