Announcements herald university's expanded role in public health

Two recent federal announcements demonstrate the expanded national role that UofL is playing in the area of public health.

A two-year grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration will strengthen efforts to teach Kentucky's health professionals how to fight bioterrorism, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a three-year grant to UofL's Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law, designating it as one of two collaborating Centers for Public Health Law in the United States.

The bioterrorism grant, announced in September, is part of a national initiative to prepare doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians and others to act quickly and effectively should there be a bioterrorism attack.

HRSA officials have announced that the University of Louisville will receive nearly $1.4 million of the total $26.6 million in funds being awarded in fiscal year 2003.

Public health, medicine, nursing and dentistry faculty at UofL will collaborate with faculty at the University of Kentucky and local and state public health officials to improve continuing education for bioterrorism preparedness, said Paul McKinney, M.D., project director and assistant director of UofL's Center for the Deterrence of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism.

"We have a unique combination of skills to apply to this project," he said. "UofL is well versed in the medical aspects of bioterrorism, while UK is well versed in the agriculture, pharmacy and veterinary aspects.

The grant will allow health professionals in rural Kentucky to receive training in bioterrorism preparedness for the first time through distance learning technology, McKinney said.

UofL has played a key role nationally in helping the country prepare for bioterrorism and biowarfare.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell helped secure $2.7 million in initial funding for UofL's center through a federal Centers for Disease Control appropriation.

Last fall, the center was designated by the CDC as one of several specialty centers in the nation for public health preparedness.

So far, the center has trained more than 4,000 health and security professionals in the Louisville and Lexington areas on how to cope with a bioterrorism attack. The center also has improved the way public health data is collected and analyzed.

"By teaming up with the University of Kentucky and public health officials around the state, we can pool our expertise and devote our best efforts to keeping Kentuckians safe from bioterrorism," said UofL President James R. Ramsey, Ph.D.

"It's a good example of how higher education, working closely with the community, can tackle real, daily life problems."

McConnell said he, too, was pleased about the additional federal funding.

"The people of Kentucky deserve first responders who are trained to recognize and respond to biological threats," he said.

"I was pleased to earmark the initial federal funding for UofL's bioterrorism center and I am proud that the federal government again has recognized UofL's unique expertise in this field."

In the second announcement, UofL's new Center for Partnership in Public Health Law will work to coordinate education for a range of related professionals, including public health officials, law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, public health lawyers and judges.

"Most of the public health laws in the United States were developed in the early part of the 20th century," explained Larry Palmer, LL.B., a co-investigator at the center who holds the institute's endowed chair in urban health policy.

"In recent years, a global economy and transportation system combined with emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism threats have created new challenges for public health laws and public health professionals."

"Most of the legal work involving public health is performed by professionals who do not specialize in public health law," added Mark Rothstein, institute director and principal investigator at the center.

"As the core public health competencies expand to include health informatics and genomics, among other factors, there is a risk that legal actors will be ill-equipped to evaluate the severity, urgency and quality of the evidence of emerging risks to the public health."

The center will address the needs of judges and lawyers who are unfamiliar with the provisions of public health laws in their particular jurisdictions.

With the rise of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, bioterrorism and similar threats, center faculty members say it is imperative that judges and others responsible for enforcing state and local public health laws be prepared.

According to Rothstein, few courts have considered issues of isolation, quarantine or medical surveillance recently, nor have they been required to balance the protection of public health with due process and privacy issues.

Along with Rothstein and Palmer, institute professor T. Howard Stone and Linda L. Chezem of Purdue University will collaborate on the center's work while the UofL School of Public Health and Information Sciences will provide public health science expertise.

The center began operation in October thanks to the $989,000 grant and is working with its partners and the CDC to develop a strategic plan for increasing the public health law training capacity of such groups as the American Bar Association, National Association of State Judicial Educators and the National Association of Local Boards of Health.