Montrece McNeill Ransom, JD, MPH, Team Lead, Training and Workforce Development, Public Health Law Program (PHLP), Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support (OSTLTS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Rose Meltzer, PHLP Intern, OSTLTS, CDC, and MPH student (2018), Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University
Are you interested in enhancing health professionals’ ability to perform legal epidemiology research? If so, your input is needed!
CDC's Public Health Law Program is leading an effort to develop a
Legal Epidemiology Competency Model (LECM). Legal epidemiology is the scientific study of law as a factor in the cause, distribution, and prevention of disease and injury. The LECM is a set of competencies that outlines the knowledge and skills needed to develop, implement, or oversee legal epidemiology studies effectively.
Many experts and organizations have supported the LECM initiative thus far. A multidisciplinary
Expert Review Workgroup assisted CDC on the elements included in the current draft of the model, providing suggestions and comments. The
Public Health Foundation (PHF) has guided the model’s validation and provided feedback on the framework of the draft model, project methodologies, and competency development process. In May 2017, PHF hosted a
virtual town hall meeting focused on the draft LECM that was attended by more than 130 people. During this meeting and afterward, participants were able to provide input on the draft LECM.
This draft has been available for public comment since May and
remains open. We welcome additional feedback from members of the public health community, including health officials, lawyers, epidemiologists, university faculty, and policy experts at all levels of government. This feedback will ensure that we gain the broadest perspective and that the LECM is useful to the target community of users.
The feedback received so far reflects several themes:
- The model’s tier structure helps demonstrate how the responsibilities of individuals in different positions align, and it provides a structure for professionals to grow in their careers.
- The authors should clarify certain behavioral statements and add additional competencies regarding funding, resource allocation, and ethical requirements for research.
- It may be useful to show how these align or connect with other epidemiology competencies, such as the Competencies for Applied Epidemiologists in Governmental Public Health Agencies, or those in the MPH Core Competency Model.
Your additional feedback will help CDC improve the current draft and produce a final version for release in late 2017. As you explore the draft model, we invite you to consider the following questions:
- Would an employee with legal epidemiology skills and abilities add value to your organization?
- Should we add any additional competencies that would support legal epidemiology work in your organization?
- Do the behavioral statements accurately reflect the various levels of proficiency required in legal epidemiologists’ work?
- How would you use the LECM in your work?
Whether you use legal epidemiology now or plan to use it in the future, we appreciate your feedback. Please share your comments here.
Funding for this project was made possible by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ChangeLab Solutions under Cooperative Agreement Number 6NU8OT000141-04-02. The views expressed in written materials or publications do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does the mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the US Government.
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