Policy is a powerful tool that can improve health and wellbeing by addressing specific risks or impacting social conditions that are drivers of health and quality of life. But governmental policies can vary immensely from one jurisdiction to another. Surveillance of policies at the local level can help facilitate evidence‑based policy adoption between cities, states, and beyond. This essay highlights the CityHealth model, which has successfully influenced policy change by illuminating the quality and quantity of nine key city policies in the forty most populous U.S. metropolitan areas.
Tables on LawAtlas.org catalog resources tracking emergency declarations, mitigation policies, and other topic-specific resources available at every jurisdictional level related to the response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Self-managed abortion has improved access to safe and effective abortions. While the practice is on the rise around the world, many countries impose significant legal restrictions on abortion access. These laws regulate various aspects of abortion, including: the grounds upon which individuals are permitted to obtain an abortion; who may provide an abortion; the tests that health professionals are required to administer before an abortion may be provided; and where an abortion is legally permitted to take place.
This special supplement of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice presents 13 original articles using theory and methods from the field of legal epidemiology. The supplement issue includes nine original research articles and four commentaries that explore the past, present, and future of the field.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) uses medications, such as Methadone, in conjunction with behavioral therapy and counseling to treat opioid addiction. MAT with methadone is required to be distributed to individuals through an Opioid Treatment Program (OTP). MAT with methadone for opioid addiction is subject to federal law, with specific requirements such as physician evaluations, toxicology testing, counseling, and treatment planning. Some states go beyond what is required by the federal law and place stricter restrictions on OTPs, while other states simply defer to the federal law.
According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 10 million people aged 12 or older reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs. As more states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana and with the high prevalence of prescription drug use in the United States, drugged driving has become a public health issue. In response, states have passed laws intended to decrease traffic accidents and deaths related to drugged driving.
Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) collect patient-specific prescription information in centralized databases in an effort to reduce the misuse of controlled medicines. This dataset captures laws governing PDMP reporting and authorized use. The topic includes who is required to report to the PDMP, what drug schedules must be reported to the PDMP, and whether the PDMP is authorized to share data with insurers, state Medicaid programs, or PDMPs located in other states.
This is a longitudinal dataset, displaying laws from January 1, 1998 to July 1, 2016.
Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) collect patient-specific prescription information in centralized databases in an effort to reduce the misuse of controlled substances. This dataset captures the important dates for each state’s PDMP, including the dates of enactment, operation, and user access. These dates were compiled through contact with PDMP administrators from each state program by Brandeis’ PDMP Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC). The information is publicly available and is published here in dataset format with the permission of Brandeis’ PDMP TTAC.
