CSTE’s Public Health Law Subcommittee brings together epidemiologists, public health attorneys and other health and legal experts to provide a forum for addressing legal issues related to surveillance, epidemiology and/or public health practice. Our goal is to use the tools of law and policy to advance public health efforts. Our team works with both attorneys and public health officials to design and implement practical legal solutions to complex public health challenges.

Topics of Interest 

• Public Health & Data. CSTE deals with legislative issues around surveillance policy, defining research vs. practice, the impact of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) on data sharing agreements, and other topics of interest to CSTE members. Identifiable health data are the lifeblood of public health surveillance and other activities. Their use is essential to effective public health activities and public health research. Public health authorities at all levels of government seek increasingly greater types and volume of personally-identifiable health information, including through data exchanges between public health entities. Too often, however, acquisition and use of identifiable health information through existing public health databases are restricted or limited due to privacy norms or other policies. Public health authorities may be reticent to share identifiable health data with others, even for legitimate public health purposes, because of concerns over individual privacy or legal interpretations of privacy laws. As a result, public health entities in varying jurisdictions may lack access to available health data to conduct essential services and research.

• Bridging Public Health & Law. The goal of this initiative is to connect epidemiologists with public health attorneys to create a dialog around on-going and persistent legal challenges that impact public health practice at the state and local level. This can be achieved by fostering relationships between epidemiologists and legal expertise so that they may proactively and collaboratively address issues of mutual concern.

 To submit a topic for the subcommittee to consider, click here. 

Strategic Goals:

1. Foster productive relationships and conversations between public health epidemiologists and attorneys 
2. Identify opportunities to leverage and support public health laws, regulations and/or policies to improve or advance public health practice
3. Provide a forum to support epidemiologists working in the public sector by providing legal knowledge and tools.

Resources

• COVID 19 related ad hoc calls & webinars: 
• Back to School Discussion Call
• Mandating Vaccines and Implications for COVID-19
• Legal Barriers Toolkit
  • Assessments on and discussions of the impact of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) on surveillance
  • Consultation on the National Integrated Public Health Surveillance Systems and Reportable Conditions Act
  • Public Health Practice vs. Research: A Report for Public Health Practitioners Including Cases and Guidance for Making Decisions

 Meet the Subcommittee Leaders:

• Sunbal Virk, CSTE Subcommittee Lead: Sunbal Virk is an attorney at CSTE, where she is the staff lead for both the CSTE Public Health Law Subcommittee as well as CSTE’s Public Health Law portfolio. Sunbal obtained her J.D./LL.M., Democratic Governance and Rule of Law from Ohio Northern University, Claude W. Pettit College of Law. She attended University of Michigan-Dearborn for her B.A. in Psychology and Criminal Justice.
• Colin Boes, Co-Chair: Colin Boes is an attorney who works for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), where he also serves on the Institutional Review Board. He focuses on data sharing and security issues, including those around public health. Colin is a graduate of Michigan State University and the Michigan State College of Law. Colin has presented at conferences on data sharing issues, as well as appearing as a guest lecturer on public health topics at both Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. Before joining MDHHS Colin worked within the Michigan court system, working for a circuit court, the court of appeals, and the supreme court.
• Laurie Forlano, Co-Chair: Dr. Forlano has served at the Virginia Department of Health since 2011 in varied roles in applied epidemiology and public health leadership, serving as Deputy State Epidemiologist (2011-2014), State Epidemiologist (2014-2018), and Deputy Commissioner (2018-2021). She currently serves as Deputy Director of the Office of Epidemiology and Deputy State Epidemiologist at VDH. She served as Virginia's State Epidemiologist during the Ebola and Zika responses, and on the Governor's Executive Leadership Team for Opioids and Addiction. During the COVID-19 response she has served in varying roles including Chair of the COVID-19 Long Term Care Task Force, Operations Section Chief, Chair of the COVID-19 K12 School Task Force, Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Testing Team, and provided leadership and policy support to the COVID-19 Community Mitigation team. Prior to her time in Virginia, Dr. Forlano served in different public health roles at local and state levels in Vermont and New Hampshire. She is board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health and received her MPH from the University of Massachusetts. 

For more information about CSTE’s public health law activities, please contact Sunbal Virk. Click here to view other Cross Cutting Steering Committee activities.