New national public health law network launched; UNC hosts Southeastern regional center
| September 22, 2010 | |
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From air bag requirements for cars to smoke-free regulations in restaurants and bars, law has become a powerful tool to create healthier, safer communities. As a result, those vested in public health – from local, state, federal, tribal officials and their legal counsel to public health practitioners, policymakers and advocates – need legal expertise to help them develop, implement and enforce laws that help solve public health problems.
The Public Health Law Network opens Sept. 20 to provide answers to professionals grappling with complex public health challenges that may warrant legal and policy solutions. The North Carolina Institute for Public Health’s health law initiative, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, was selected as one of five regional academic centers. The institute will partner with the National Health Law program, one of the nation’s oldest health law support centers.
Gene Matthews, JD
The UNC-based Southeastern regional center will provide assistance to 11 states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) and Puerto Rico, and will serve as a national resource for the network on legal issues related to accreditation and health-care reform. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund the center over a three-year period for $1.3 million. Gene Matthews, JD, former chief counsel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and senior fellow with the institute, will be director of the new center. “We are extremely fortunate during these hard economic times that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has shown the vision and leadership to support this vital effort to increase the use of law as an important tool in the practice of public health,” said Matthews, who was one of the founders of the modern public health law movement ten years ago.
The collaboration with the Chapel Hill office of the National Health Law Program is significant for its historic efforts to increase and improve access to quality health care for low-income and vulnerable populations. It offers expertise to public interest lawyers, government offices and consumer advocates; monitors federal and state health-care programs, especially Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program; and advises policymakers about needed improvements.
The Public Health Law Network, including the new Southeastern regional center, aims to increase the use and effectiveness of public health laws in protecting, promoting and improving public health by delivering technical assistance and providing education and training to help public health practitioners, lawyers, policymakers and others working to apply the law to pressing public health issues.
Anyone working in public health or law may call or email the network for guidance on how best to apply the law to their particular public health concern. The network also will provide education and training focused on applying the law to improve public health.
The network will provide legal technical assistance on many public health topics, including, but not limited to, cross-border public health, emergency legal preparedness and response, environmental public health, food safety, health reform, health information data sharing, injury prevention and safety, public health agency accreditation and regionalization, public health statutes and regulatory information, tobacco control and tribal public health.
For more information about the network, visit www.publichealthlawnetwork.org.For more information on the work of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, visit www.rwjf.org.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, 919-966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.
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