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“Let conversation cease, let laughter flee, for this is the place where death delights to help the living.“
- Giovanni Morgagni, as inscribed on the wall of the NYC Medical Examiner’s Office
Public health relies on medical examiners and coroners for quality data about deaths they investigate including those that are sudden, unexpected, or unexplained.
Medicolegal death investigations conducted by medical examiners and coroners are crucial to understanding causes of death, monitoring evolving health challenges, and – ultimately – saving lives.
On this page
- Recommended Reading
- Highlighted Activities
- Why it Matters
- Associations and Organizations
- Suggested Links
Collaborating Office of Medical Examiners and Coroners
The Collaborating Office of Medical Examiners and Coroners (COMEC) works to bring together resources from across CDC to support the work in the medical examiner and coroner community.
Writing Cause-of-Death Statements on Death Certificates
To improve mortality statistics, we offer online trainings, publications, presentations, and guidance for investigating deaths and certifying cause-of-death on death certificates.
Learn more
Modernizing Death Data and Systems
To modernize the nation’s death data and systems and promote quality and timely data, we engage with medical examiners and coroners by offering support and resources.
Learn more
Recommended Reading
- Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) – Strengthening the Medicolegal Death Investigation System: Improving Data Systems
- Medscape: The Medical Examiner and CoronerSystems
- CDC Blog: Modernizingthe Flow of Death Data is LifesavingWork
- CDC Blog: Drugs, Death, and Data
Highlighted Links
Federal Interagency Medicolegal Death Investigation Working Group
Strengthening medicolegal death investigation through collaboration
Modernizing the National Vital Statistics Systems
Reinventing the National Vital Statistics Systems to make data on births and deaths more available for action.
Assessing laws
Coroner/Medical Examiner Laws by State(CDC Public Health Law)
State Medical Examiners and Coroners Organizations
Directory of ME/C offices around the country
Modernizing Drug Death Data
Improving the timeliness and quality of drug overdose death data
Guidance for disasters
Developing disaster-related death investigation materials (National Center for Environmental Health)
More specific and up-to-dateinformation from medical examiners and coronersis improving mortality data and statistics
Data Timeliness
More death records faster
Medical examiners and coroners have made a significant contribution toour nation’s ability to meet death reporting goals, especially for major public healthcrises like drug overdose and suicide.
Data Quality
Battling the opioid epidemic
Medical examiners and coroners have increased specific-drug reporting on death certificates up to 94% as of 2019, helping to recognize changes in the pattern of the opioid epidemic.
Associations and Organizations
- National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME)
- International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners
- The American Academy of Forensic Sciences
- The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators
- American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors
- NIST: Medicolegal Death Investigation Subcommittee
- Federal Interagency Medicolegal Death Investigation Working Group
Related Sites
- Collaborating Office of Medical Examiners and Coroners (COMEC)
- National Death Index
- Surveys and Data Collection Systems
- Vital Statistics Online
