A COVID-19 Lesson: Better Health Emergency Preparedness Standards Are Needed.

This article reports on an assessment of the value of 4 widely recognized standards of health sector emergency preparedness as predictors of effective preparedness for, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The standards are sponsored by the National Health Security Preparedness Index (NHSPI), the Trust for America's Health (TFAH), the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP), and the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The measure of effectiveness was states' cumulative COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 population, from January 21, 2020, through January 20, 2022.

Needed: new authority to build public health system capacity for climate change health threats.

Strong public health system capacity is essential to protection against climate change health threats. Taken as a whole, the United States (U.S.

Climate Change and Public Health Surveillance: Toward a Comprehensive Strategy.

Context: Climate change poses a host of serious threats to human health that robust public health surveillance systems can help address. It is unknown, however, whether existing surveillance systems in the United States have adequate capacity to serve that role, nor what actions may be needed to develop adequate capacity.

Objective: Our goals were to review efforts to assess and strengthen the capacity of public health surveillance systems to support health-related adaptation to climate change in the United States and to determine whether additional efforts are warranted.

Law, public health, and the diabetes epidemic.

The prevalence of new cases of diabetes continues to increase, and the health burden for those with diabetes remains high. This is attributable, in part, to low adoption of evidence-based interventions for diabetes prevention and control. Law is a critical tool for health improvement, yet assessments reported in this paper indicate that federal, state, and local laws give only partial support to guidelines and evidence-based interventions relevant to diabetes prevention and control.

The laboratory efficiencies initiative: partnership for building a sustainable national public health laboratory system.

Beginning in early 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Public Health Laboratories launched the Laboratory Efficiencies Initiative (LEI) to help public health laboratories (PHLs) and the nation's entire PHL system achieve and maintain sustainability to continue to conduct vital services in the face of unprecedented financial and other pressures. The LEI focuses on stimulating substantial gains in laboratories' operating efficiency and cost efficiency through the adoption of proven and promising management practices. In its first year, the LEI generated a strategic plan and a number of resources that PHL directors can use toward achieving LEI goals.

Working mothers, breastfeeding, and the law.

Workplace barriers contribute to low rates of breastfeeding. Research shows that supportive state laws correlate with higher rates, yet by 2009, only 23 states had adopted any laws to encourage breastfeeding in the workplace. Federal law provided virtually no protection to working mothers until the 2010 enactment of the "reasonable break time" provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The scientific basis for law as a public health tool.

Systematic reviews are generating valuable scientific knowledge about the impact of public health laws, but this knowledge is not readily accessible to policy makers. We identified 65 systematic reviews of studies on the effectiveness of 52 public health laws: 27 of those laws were found effective, 23 had insufficient evidence to judge effectiveness, 1 was harmful, and 1 was found to be ineffective. This is a valuable, scientific foundation-that uses the highest relevant standard of evidence-for the role of law as a public health tool.

Addressing gaps in health care sector legal preparedness for public health emergencies.

Health care providers and their legal counsel play pivotal roles in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. Lawyers representing hospitals, health systems, and other health care provider components are being called upon to answer complex legal questions regarding public health preparedness issues that most providers have not previously faced. Many of these issues are legal issues with which public health officials should be familiar, and that can serve as a starting point for cross-sector legal preparedness planning involving both the public health and health care communities.

A review of model public health laws.

Model public health laws (public health laws or private policies publicly recommended by at least 1 organization for adoption by government bodies or by specified private entities) are promoted as exemplary. We assessed the information sponsors of model public health laws provide on the methods used in developing their models and on their models' adoption and effectiveness. Through a systematic search, we identified 107 model public health laws published from 1907 to 2004.

A legal framework for preventing cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases are major contributors to death, disability, disparities, and reduced quality of life in the United States. Successful prevention and control of these diseases requires a comprehensive approach applied across multiple public health settings and in all life stages. Individual lifestyle and behavior change, as well as the broader social, environmental, and policy changes that enable healthy lifestyles, are necessary.

Law as a tool for preventing chronic diseases: expanding the range of effective public health strategies.

Law, which is a fundamental element of effective public health policy and practice, played a crucial role in many of public health's greatest achievements of the 20th century. Still, conceptual legal frameworks for the systematic application of law to chronic disease prevention and control have not been fully recognized and used to address public health needs. Development and implementation of legal frameworks could broaden the range of effective public health strategies and provide valuable tools for the public health workforce, especially for state and local health department program managers and state and national policy makers.

Public health finance: a conceptual framework.

In an attempt to stimulate development of public health finance as a field of practice, policy, and scholarship, this article proposes a working definition of the term "public health finance," embeds it in the context of the maturing literature on the public health system and its infrastructure, and proposes a four-part typology that spans both public-sector and private-sector contributions to the financing of prevention and health promotion. A developmental strategy for the field--in applied research, training and education, and performance standards--is outlined as well.

What is public health legal preparedness?

Legal preparedness has gained recognition as a critical component of comprehensive public health preparedness for public health emergencies triggered by infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters, chemical and radiologic disasters, terrorism and other causes. Public health practitioners and their colleagues in other disciplines can prepare for and respond to such an event effectively only if law is used along with other tools. The same is true for more conventional health threats.

The dimensions of public health law research.

Applied public health law research is an essential element for improving the legal foundation of public health practice. This article focuses on the proper scope and the methodology related to conducting public health law research. In addition to considering the issue of translating research into practice, the article provides overviews of three current public health law research projects and the lessons they provide for researchers.

Building the legal foundation for an effective public health system.

Work has been underway nationally since the mid-1990s to equip state and community public health systems with the infrastructure needed to perform essential public health services. Key components of that infrastructure are a competent workforce, information and communication systems, health department and laboratory capacity, and legal authorities. As part of this transformative work, standards and assessment tools have been developed to measure the capacity and actual performance of public health systems.