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 Public Health System

COVID-19: Real-time guidance, resources and information.

COVID-19: Real-time guidance, resources and information.

Effective messaging of public health challenges and interventions is essential to public health practice and especially to implementing public health laws and policies in a polarized political environment. It is easy for public health leaders to become consumed with the ongoing political and resource shifts taking place in public health and health care. However, it is also clear that those in public health, at all levels, want to engage more deeply and meaningfully with communities of all backgrounds who are burdened by poor health.

During disease outbreaks or natural disasters, jurisdictions may take divergent legal approaches in their responses to national or regional public health threats. Legal authorities vary…

The ability to share and analyze health and other data can be powerful in identifying problems and solutions to improve the health of communities. Our collection of tools and resources are designed to help address legal barriers and facilitate data sharing while ensuring health agencies and organizations operate within the legal requirements of HIPAA and other regulations.

There are novel and innovative ways that law and policy can be used to advance health initiatives. Emerging public health issues like climate adaptation, social determinants of health, and the impact of trauma on health call for new approaches and strategies that leverage law and policy in new, previously unexplored ways.

De-identification is an important tool to make data available to communities. Generally, once public health removes or obscures personal identifying information within a data set,…

Most health departments have programs that are covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Public Law 104-191 (“HIPAA”), such as health care providers…

Data are essential to inform public health activities. While an abundance of data are collected and used in different sectors, laws define how data can…