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The Network for Public Health Law monitors key court cases and relevant judicial trends in public health. The Network’s monthly reporter, Judicial Trends in Public…

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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.

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.

The Network’s monthly reporter, Judicial Trends in Public Health (JTPH), highlights key court cases and relevant judicial trends in public health. The cases below are organized…

The Network for Public Health Law monitors key court cases and relevant judicial trends in public health. The Network’s monthly reporter, Judicial Trends in Public…

The Network’s monthly reporter, Judicial Trends in Public Health (JTPH), highlights key court cases and relevant judicial trends in public health. The cases below are organized…

Data are essential for public health surveillance, epidemiological investigation, research, program development, implementation and evaluation. A complex legal landscape, and lack of knowledge and training in law, result in actual or perceived barriers to data collection, use and sharing. As a result, opportunities are missed to use and share electronic data to improve the health of communities, promote wellness, address social determinants of health and increase health equity.

When financially stressed Flint, Michigan, switched the source of its water from Lake Huron to the Flint River as a cost-cutting measure, the river water corroded the city's aging service lines. As a result, thousands of children and adults were poisoned after lead leached into the city's drinking water. To ensure that future decisions made in other communities incorporate the lessons learned from this preventable disaster, the Network partnered with the University of Michigan School of Public Health to examine the legal and governmental failures at the heart of the crisis and create resources that inform government officials, policymakers and community advocates.