2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

336275
Measuring Laws' Impacts on Health: Opportunities in Legal Epidemiology


Monday, November 2, 2015

Montrece Ransom, JD, MPH, Public Health Law Program - Office for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Tara Ramanathan, JD, MPH, Public Health Law Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Scott Burris, JD, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Center for Health Law, Policy and Practice, Philadelphia, PA
Laura Hitchcock, JD, Assessment, Policy Development & Evaluation Unit, Public Health-Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA
Law is critical to achieving public health goals and serves as the foundation for governmental public health practice in the US. Many of public health's greatest successes, including high childhood immunization rates, improved motor vehicle safety, safer workplaces, and reduced tooth decay, are the result of impactful legal interventions.  Today, law plays an essential role in addressing public health threats, such as childhood obesity, healthcare-associated infections, and prescription drug overdoses.  Laws also facilitate improvements across the health system by improving data sharing to provide real-time public health alerts, strengthening the fragmented healthcare delivery process, and authorizing complex emergency response and preparedness.  With this growing recognition, ttention to and investment in understanding the effects of laws and legal practices on public health has emerged. Public health law research and the merging field of legal epidemiology have crystalized the need for the scientific study of law as a factor in the cause, distribution, and prevention of disease and injury in a population. 

This session, featuring speakers from CDC’s Public Health Law Program, Public Health-Seattle & King County’s Assessment, Policy Development & Evaluation Unit, ChangeLab Solutions, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Law Research Program, will provide an overview of legal epidemiology, offer a working definition of the concept, and present an opportunity for participants to learn about legal epidemiology projects currently underway and tools available for practitioners and their legal counsel.  

I will moderate this panel/workshop. Each speaker's abstract will be submitted separate under ID# 336275. 

Learning Areas:

Ethics, professional and legal requirements
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Define Legal Epidemiology Discuss ways in which Legal Epidemiology can improve the understanding of complex legal issues Identify the three primary components of Legal Epidemiology Identify Legal Epidemiology tools and techniques used in public health practice

Keyword(s): Research, Law

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Team Lead for Public Health Law Training and Workforce Development with CDC’s Public Health Law Program. Primary focus is on developing and delivering training aimed at increasing the capacity of public health practitioners to understand and use law to advance public health goals. She has presented, taught courses, and published on a broad range of topics including public health emergency law, tribal public health law, health disparities, careers in public health, and environmental law.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3372.0: Innovative Approaches to Evaluating Public Health Laws