Meghan Mead

HDUs can provide health departments critical information to respond proactively to emergencies, public health risks, and equity focused use cases. They also address many contemporary concerns around data sharing, such as transparency around governance and ensuring the access and use of data serves the public good.

States rely on data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) to identify and monitor troubling trends in adolescent health and develop programmatic and policy interventions. In January, YRBSS data were among many federal data resources pulled from public access in response to vague and scientifically unsupported executive orders signed by President Trump. The result is a dangerous blind spot at precisely the moment when schools, health agencies, and policymakers need clear information the most.

by Overview Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, is being used with increasing frequency at all levels of federal and state government, including…

Public health decisions rely on accurate data, yet broad racial and ethnic categories often conceal meaningful differences within communities and perpetuate inequities. This webinar introduces the foundational principles of data disaggregation and highlights how inclusive practices can improve the visibility of health disparities and prevent the statistical erasure of small or historically marginalized groups, particularly American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations.

In recent years, federal, state, and local child welfare agencies have begun to develop data sharing policies and practices to support sharing child welfare data with other agencies. These agencies intend to use data sharing to enhance the government’s ability to coordinate and improve the provision of social services. This issue brief explores the relationships between child welfare, public health, data sharing, and racial and income disparities. It includes recommendations for agencies, community partnerships, and policy researchers to incorporate into the development of data sharing and use practices to reduce the risk of further perpetuating harm against vulnerable communities.

A Community Information Exchanges (CIE™) is a community governed network of health and social service providers that can facilitate data sharing among healthcare, social services, and community-based organizations to facilitate more holistic and coordinated care, and advance public health. This resource examines common features of legal frameworks developed to facilitate the flow of information in CIEs around the country.

On February 8, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released a final rule modifying the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations at 42 CFR Part 2. The updates are significant and will affect the operations of every Part 2 program and provider. This resource provides practitioners and public health officials with a deeper understanding of the updates to Part 2.

by Overview January 23 | 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. CTThere are many opportunities for the public health community to leverage AI to advance…

There are opportunities for public health agencies to improve health outcomes and alleviate workforce burden through AI. However, public health agencies also need to be aware of the challenges and ethical complexities around AI, and thoughtfully evaluate its use and ensure appropriate protections are in place.

This legal technical assistance resource responds to questions attendees posed in response to information shared in a training session on HIPAA held by the Network in February 2024.

This legal technical assistance resource addresses the question of privacy protections in state and federal law related to health care data that is obtained from the provision of free healthcare services where there are no electronic transactions, such as billing.

This resource outlines several key resources from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services and includes links to the materials online.