“Policy surveillance” is the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of information about laws and other policies of health importance.
As part of a larger effort to develop tools and methods for public health law research, PHLR, working in collaboration with CDC’s Office of State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (OSTLTS), ChangeLab Solutions, the Network for Public Health Law, and the Public Health Law Center, surveyed a Delphi panel of experts to define basic standards and practices in the conduct of policy surveillance. Results are reported here in accordance with accepted methods for Delphi studies.
This Delphi study reached high agreement on a basic set of standards for conducting policy surveillance and constructing legal datasets. The consensus standards defined in this survey formed the basis of a draft technical guide for policy surveillance created by the staff of the Public Health Law Research Project.13 A consensus on how to best put these standards into operation is still emerging, however, and would be a fruitful topic of further discussion in the field. Panelists indicated that resources are a continuing concern. Policy surveillance on a scientific model is valuable and efficient, but it is not free. Putting the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation into practice may require new resources, or the redirection of legal research resources now being used in less efficient ways.