Creating Legal Data for Public Health Monitoring and Evaluation: Delphi Standards for Policy Surveillance

Abstract

Public Health Law Research used a Delphi process to develop consensus expert standards for policy surveillance. Consensus was reached on a set of core standards for collecting, analyzing, publishing and maintaining legal datasets for monitoring important public health policies. Further efforts are needed to refine standards and develop the infrastructure for policy surveillance.

Public Health Surveillance Systems: Recent Advances in Their Use and Evaluation

“…Recognition that public health law and policy influence community health has led some organizations to establish surveillance systems to monitor the impact of public health laws and policies on communities, environments, and individuals (18,23,66). Longitudinal surveillance data used to examine the impact of laws and policies on community health are distinguished from the legislative tracking systems that are commonly utilized to monitor policy interest and activity.…”

“…Longitudinal surveillance data used to examine the impact of laws and policies on community health are distinguished from the legislative tracking systems that are commonly utilized to monitor policy interest and activity. Law and policy tracking over time and across jurisdictions can help policy makers, advocates, and researchers understand what the laws are on a particular topic and can provide them with data to evaluate their impact (66).…”

National public health law: a role for WHO in capacity-building and promoting transparency

“…The policy surveillance approach differs from a simple database of legal texts in several ways. The approach is selective, capturing only provisions that are expected to be of ongoing significance, for which up-to-date information is required for planning, capacity-building, tracking progress or conducting evaluations of legal impact 43 . It also uses scientific methods of collecting and coding legal information, including the use of specified quality control processes within an explicit research protocol, so that the results are highly credible, but also of a quality and in a form that can be used in evaluation research 44 .…”

“…It also uses scientific methods of collecting and coding legal information, including the use of specified quality control processes within an explicit research protocol, so that the results are highly credible, but also of a quality and in a form that can be used in evaluation research 44 . Modern database software, including at least one program developed for multi-jurisdictional legal research, and the Internet allow this kind of digitized, structured legal data to be published on interactive websites that allow users to not only access the data but also create custom reports comparing the important features of the law across countries or tracking trends over time 30 . Examples of such surveillance sites include the Alcohol Policy Information System (a project of the United States National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism), 45 the Prescription Drug Abuse Policy System (funded by the United States National Institute on Drug Abuse), 46 the Law Atlas (a programme of the Public Health Law Research Program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) 47 and the WORLD Policy Analysis Center (based at the Fielding School of Public Health of the University of California Los Angeles) 48 …”

“…WHO can use its convening power and its broad topical expertise to bring together a group of experts and funders to consider the best model for global health policy surveillance. The options are many, including a single WHO-based portal, a collaboration along the lines of Cochrane or an informal network of providers using shared methods and data structures to maximize the quality, utility and exchange of legal data 23 , 30 …”