Policy Surveillance: What is it and Where are We?

Research Objective: To introduce the emerging concept of policy surveillance and demonstrate the utility of such a system for policymakers, practitioners and researchers.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of published literature using coded legal datasets and an online search of existing publicly available legal datasets. We identified gaps in the empirical legal data infrastructure and thus embarked on an effort to design and create a demonstration project for a policy surveillance system which addresses the deficits found in our initial review.

Results: There are currently only a handful of coded legal datasets that are readily accessible to the public. Studies of public health laws are largely cross-sectional or include incomplete data on the laws; most often this is dichotomous - mere presence of the law. We found little evidence of sustained funding for this work. In response, we launched a demonstration project to track public health laws, display maps and trend information, text of the laws, and research ready coded legal datasets. In collaboration with other researchers working to develop similar systems, we can share approaches to develop and maintain a potentially crowd-sourced, policy surveillance system.

Conclusions: Policy surveillance is an effective and efficient way to track policies and creates a necessary research infrastructure. The system can facilitate policy innovation and diffusion for policymakers and practitioners and evaluation for public health researchers. As technology advances and we learn from our experience, we look forward to working with interdisciplinary researchers to make this a research tool for all.