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Enhancing Public Health Law Communication Linkages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

The Public Health Law Association’s (PHLA) grant proposal described the problem of accessing public health law information, and the charge for this paper, as follows:

The last decade has witnessed a renaissance in public health law. An array of forces have given rise to new model acts, important litigation developments and a growing body of academic research in the field. While there have been some initial attempts to collate important materials, practitioners in the field lack access to “real world” documents and practice guides. If public health law is to remain an organic and growing field and, more importantly, if the fruits of this renaissance are to have lasting practical effect, practitioners in multiple fields must have access to this body of knowledge.

Type
Special Supplement
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2008

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References

It has been pointed out during discussions of earlier versions of this draft that not all public health practitioners lack access; some, in fact, may have access to a surfeit of information which complicates the process of quickly and easily identifying quality, timely materials.Google Scholar
It is assumed by the author that it is not the goal of the Public Health Law Association (or any other public health law initiative) to attempt to compete as a content provider with such commercial legal research services as Lexis, Westlaw, and free legal compendia such as Law.com, AtLaw.org, or the Cornell University Legal Information Institute (http://www.law.cornell.edu/). Furthermore, this report will not discuss which content areas of public health law PHLA might or should cover through its own educational or research endeavors, nor will it recommend how the Public Health Law Association can generate comprehensive new knowledge bases (such as jurisdiction-specific public health law bench books), or become the ultimate arbiter of what constitutes public health law.Google Scholar
The term “public health practitioner” generally refers to those utilizing public health law materials in efforts to improve the public's health, and is not limited to those working directly for federal, state or local public health government agencies.Google Scholar
As the Public Health Law Association is the primary professional organization engaged in the study of this question, this report may, at times, specifically consider the capacity of PHLA to undertake such professional educational efforts. Most of this report's findings, however, could be applied by any professional organization. Therefore, any specific reference to PHLA should also be understood to mean “organizations interested in expanding access to public health law knowledge.”Google Scholar
Special thanks to Benken, Donald, Burbach, Cindy, Iton, Anthony, Lopez, Wilfredo, Lynk, Myles, Simon, Michele, and Winterfeld, Amy for their guidance during a work group session convened by the Public Health Law Association; also to Marilyn Thomas, Lee Lane, and Heather McCabe for their input concerning the paper during an October 2007 conference call; and especially to Patricia Davidson, Dianne Hoffman, Daniel O'Brien, Clifford Rees, Virginia Rowthorn, Jason Smith, and Marty Wasserman for sharing their suggestions and enthusiasm throughout the project.Google Scholar
In fact, it is often recommended that presenters wishing to make an effective PowerPoint presentation minimize the amount of information appearing on their slides, creating a paradoxical situation so that the worst live presentations — those bogged down in slides filled with data tables and bullet points that essentially are read aloud by the presenter — become the most valuable for uploading online without also uploading audio or video of the presenter's remarks.Google Scholar
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The following section is based upon e-mail communications between the author and Dr. LaPorte in July 2007.Google Scholar
The source of the $5,000 in annual funding appears to be personal donations by the Web site creators. Even this funding, however, appears to have dried up: on September 27, 2007, the founder of the Supercourse announced that, absent identification of new funding streams or development of a new business plan, the Supercourse would cease collecting new lectures and offering additional educational activities on January 1, 2008. E-mail correspondence from Ronald E. LaPorte, September 27, 2007 (on file with author).Google Scholar
There are a number of different ways that content experts may make their materials freely available to be shared for educational or entertainment purposes without having to get bogged down in the significant legal and procedural roadblocks created by the U.S. Copyright system, including the use of Creative Commons agreements, which allows for more open use of materials by the public while protecting the ownership rights of the content creators.Google Scholar
Google recently announced the development of a Web-based presentation feature in its Google Docs software suite (http://docs.google.com). Other online presentation software options include Zoho Show (http://show.zoho.com), Preezo (http://www.preezo.com), and SlideShare (http://slideshare.net) (all last visited June 26, 2008).Google Scholar
However, the amount of public health law and ethics content is minimal. A review of the titles of the available lectures on the Supercourse site indicated that less than 10 of the lectures highlighted legal, political, or ethics-related issues in public health law.Google Scholar
According to the American Bar Association, 38 states approve at least some form of teleconferences and live audio broadcasts for MCLE: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. See American Bar Association, Center for Continuing Legal Education, available at <http://www.abanet.org/cle/cle_faq.html#mcle_tele> (last visited June 26, 2008).+(last+visited+June+26,+2008).>Google Scholar
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On the issue of what constitutes “proper” results: it should be noted that patient safety experts like to say that the health care system delivers exactly the type of results they were built to deliver; however, in this case, “proper” means the results the health care providers ideally would have like to have seen delivered to the patient, given the patient's care needs.Google Scholar
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What follows are insights gained by the author through conversation with Dr. Wachter and Erin Hartman, Web M&M and PSNet Project Manager.Google Scholar
“PayPal” is a Web site which coordinates the payment of funds online without allowing for the sharing of personally identifiable information between the two contracting parties. It is available at <http://www.paypal.com> (last visited July 17, 2008). This is one of the most popular ways for transactions to be conducted between bidders and item sellers on eBay, for example.+(last+visited+July+17,+2008).+This+is+one+of+the+most+popular+ways+for+transactions+to+be+conducted+between+bidders+and+item+sellers+on+eBay,+for+example.>Google Scholar
Dr. Wachter estimated that it would cost “between $100,000 and $200,000” to develop a high quality Web presence. Dr. Wachter stated he believed the “feel” of the Web site was almost as important for buy-in by readers and contributors as the content the site itself provided. However, it is the opinion of this report writer that such services may be desirable, but should not be seen as a barrier to the development of similar efforts for the public health law field.Google Scholar
Wachter credits the short turn-around time and short length of requested submissions as key to their successful solicitation and receipt of expert commentaries, although the availability of an honorarium for such a brief contribution also must be considered as a useful recruitment tool.Google Scholar
It is the opinion of the author that the opportunity for an author to work with a professional editorial team as part of the publication process is both a dying art in the field of law publication, and a strong selling point for establishing credibility and enthusiasm in the market.Google Scholar
Access to cases published at earlier dates is still open; however, CME credit cannot be received for their review.Google Scholar
See Wachter, and Shojania, , supra note 21, at 668.Google Scholar
Public Health Law Association conference call, September 17, 2007.Google Scholar
Even if such a conference or presentation were invitation-only or jurisdiction-specific, alerting the public health law community that such an event were taking place, and who might be reached to gain further information about the event, would be valuable to improving connections between public health law professionals. Id.Google Scholar
See Steinert, Y., McLeod, P. J., Conochie, L., and Nasmith, L., “An Online Discussion for Medical Faculty: An Experiment that Failed,” Academic Medicine 77, no. 9 (2002): 939940 (citing concerns about confidentiality, time, competing demands, a lack of perceived needs by the potential users, and comfort with the technology as obstacles to implementation of an online discussion board).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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