NCDHHS' Hospital-Based Public Health Epidemiologist (PHE) Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. NCDHHS' Division of Public Health (NC DPH) developed the program in 2003 to increase the surveillance of significant events in public health by placing public health epidemiologists in the state's largest hospital systems. The partnerships between NC DPH and the state's hospitals have had a profound effect on communicable disease surveillance and have enhanced the protection of North Carolinians.