Download the 2026 agenda (subject to change)

Institute participants will:

• Develop a deep understanding of legal epidemiology, also known as public health law research. 
• Learn how to conduct policy surveillance, a methodology to carry out legal epidemiology. This includes:
  • Learning how to efficiently track and analyze policies across jurisdictions;
  • Engaging in each step of the policy surveillance process to create an empirical legal dataset.
• Learn the potential for using legal data for evaluation.
• Networking with other policy professionals, including local department of health officials, government agency employees, advocates, and researchers in academia.
• Learn the primary steps in conceptualizing a policy rating project using legal mapping data.
• Discuss strategies for dissemination, including potential audiences and outlets. 

Advanced track participants will also learn dataset management techniques to lead a policy surveillance project from start to finish.  

*The Policy Surveillance Institute will not focus on tracking bills as they move through the legislative process.  

The Policy Surveillance Institute is intended for individuals interested in tracking policies and law once they are enacted, and exploring variation across jurisdictions and over time. Participants may be, but are not limited to, law and public health professionals and students:  

• Lawyers  
• Faculty  
• Researchers  
• Government agents  
• Public health practitioners
• Advocates
• Law students
• Policy and public health graduate students  

The Policy Surveillance Institute has two concurrent tracks: the introductory track and the advanced track. Both tracks are open to students and professionals. 

The introductory track is appropriate for individuals who have limited to no knowledge of policy surveillance and scientific legal mapping techniques. This track will use hands-on exercises to introduce the full policy surveillance process, and will use pre-set examples to illustrate how to apply the process to create a cross-sectional dataset (tracking laws and policies at one point in time across jurisdictions). Upon completion, participants will be able to apply the policy surveillance process to their individual projects. The process includes the following steps:

• Scoping
• Background research
• Question development
• Collecting the law
• Coding the law
• Quality control
• Publication and dissemination
• Tracking and updating the law 

The advanced track is appropriate for individuals who are familiar with policy surveillance methods and who want to learn how to lead a policy surveillance project. Attendees will learn the steps necessary to create and manage a policy surveillance project, including creating a transdisciplinary team, recruiting a subject matter expert, project planning, quality control methods, and conceptualizing the project from start to finish. The advanced track will also cover longitudinal data building. Attendees for this track will benefit by coming with a project or topic in mind, as the track will also focus on providing hands-on technical assistance for project managers. Individuals enrolling in the advanced session will be asked to demonstrate their proficiency by identifying previous training, or relevant experience (e.g., attendance at a previous Policy Surveillance Institute, completion of the Global Certificate in Legal Epidemiology, previous work on a policy surveillance project).