This training by the Center for Public Health Law Research at the Beasley School of Law provides a broad overview of policy surveillance methods and applications. Attendees will learn the differences between scientific legal mapping techniques (e.g., policy surveillance, legal assessments), the steps of the policy surveillance process, and uses for the data.  

Policy surveillance is the systematic, scientific collection and analysis of laws of public health significance. It is a form of legal mapping that creates data suitable for use in rigorous evaluation studies. Policy surveillance addresses the chronic lack of readily accessible, nonpartisan information about status and trends in health legislation and policy, it provides the opportunity to build policy capacity in the public health workforce, and it can speed the diffusion of innovation.