This study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, collected and characterized all statutes and regulations effective from 1998 through 2011 governing the operation of prescription monitoring programs. As of 2011, 10 states required PMPs to report suspicious activity to law enforcement, while only three required reporting to the patient’s physician. None required linkage to drug treatment or required all prescribers to review PMP data before prescribing. Few explicitly address data retention.
Illegal drug use is a persistent problem, prescription drug abuse is on the rise, and there is clinical evidence that drug use reduces driving performance. This study describes trends in characteristics of drivers involved in fatal motor vehicle crashes who test positive for drugs, and finds that the profile of a drugged driver has changed substantially over time. An increasing share of these drivers is now testing positive for prescription drugs, cannabis, and multiple drugs.
This commentary discusses some of the overarching themes encountered throughout the development of a database of state legal provisions relating to foodborne illness surveillance and response.
University of Illinois at Chicago, PHLR Methods Core
Beau Kilmer, PhD •
RAND
Rosalie Pacula, PhD •
RAND
This study offers lessons learned from alcohol and tobacco regulation. The researchers recommend that if states decide to experiment with marijuana policy, they should prevent retail price drops, limit marketing, and work hard to measure and prevent impaired driving. They also note the importance of adopting a state monopoly, restricting and monitoring licenses for use and distribution, restricting public consumption, and limiting the types of products sold.
This Policy Guide is a resource that public health laboratory directors and their colleagues can use as they explore legal and other policy questions related to state public health laboratories’ sharing test services with each other.
In their Critical Opportunities presentation, Ryan Cramer and Lauren Slive suggest strengthening the HIPAA Privacy Rule by adopting the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The HITECH provision allows patients to demand that confidentiality be maintained when services are paid for in full out-of-pocket.
Adoption of a model statute could help strengthen injury prevention explains Mel Kohn MD MPH, Public Health Director, Oregon Health Authority, in his Critical Opportunities presentation.
Congenital heart defects cause nearly one-quarter of deaths due to birth defects in infants. Nearly 5,000 babies are born each year with seven specific Critical Congenital Heart Defects or Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD). There is a low-cost, non-invasive screening procedure, called pulse oximetry, that is effective in detecting CCHD. By making this screening mandatory, CCHD could be detected early and follow-ups could be done to improve health.
Legally requiring all public health departments to be accredited would improve their performance and accountability while promoting community collaboration, according to this Critical Opportunities presentation by Georgia Heise, DrPH, Public Health Director of the Three Rivers District Health Department.
In this Critical Opportunity, Tamar Klaiman, PhD, MPH, suggests that providers should be required to offer pertussis vaccination prior to new parents leaving the hospital/birth center with a newborn.
