This report offers policy recommendations on 35 wide-ranging topics from 50 national experts, from pandemic preparedness and health care to conducting sound elections and adapting immigration policy. Designed to advise leaders at the federal, state and local level, the report presents a timely examination of policy challenges and opportunities in light of the pandemic.
Public health leaders are called to develop more effective messages that appeal to a broader range of “moral foundations” and also to the new millennial generation who represent the future of the public health workforce. In this column, the authors turn the focus from the tools we can use to craft persuasive messages to the virtues that can make us worthy of being heeded.
Using data from the UberResearch NIH grant repository, researchers from the Center for Public Health Law Research and UberResearch in Cambridge, Mass., collected and coded all National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants with a focus on health policy between FY’85 and FY’14 and then analyzed the grants by funding agency and topic areas. The study finds that NIH has supported public health law research, but not to the extent necessary to timely evaluate laws affecting the public’s health.
Four longitudinal, empirical legal maps on LawAtlas.org that explore state-level HIA and HiAP bills and laws that were introduced, enacted and/or amended between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016.
The authors describe Five Essential Public Health Law Services and suggest investment in the people, methods and tools needed to move major policy initiatives from conception to widespread implementation. The model reflects a transdisciplinary approach integrating public health legal practice with law-related surveillance, evaluation and enforcement functions usually performed by public health practitioners. As an elaboration of law-related activities within the Ten Essential Public Health Services, the framework can be used to define, evaluate and strengthen public health law functions.
This study examined the extent of public awareness and use of school-based physical activity resources in Los Angeles County. Findings suggest that while a large percentage (57.7%) of people have access to school-based physical activity resources, only a portion (30.3%) use them.
A team from the LA Department of Health analyzed 20 different documents broadly defined as “joint use agreements.” The findings are displayed in this report, which provides a snapshot of the relative strengths and weaknesses of all 20 agreements through analysis and case studies from neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area.
Center for Public Health Initiatives, University of Pennsylvania
Scott Burris, JD •
Center for Public Health Law Research
This paper presents a three-step process for developing legal interventions as well as observations and suggestions for how to think about legal innovation within the broader campaign for evidenced-based policy.
