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Legal Networks Analyzer (LENA)

Detailed Technology Description

None

*Abstract

DescriptionDeveloped by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, the Legal Network Analyzer (LENA) is an software application, created to improve emergency preparedness and response capacity in state and local public health systems. LENA accomplishes this by allowing policymakers to visualize legally directed relationships between public health system agents, as mandated by federal or state statutes and regulations. In its current iteration, LENA is exists as both a standalone program and as a web-based applet. In LENA, public health system relationships can be identified within a state, as well as compared between states, or between a state and the federal government. For example, a user could visually review how the National Response Framework's (NRF) nuclear incident annex requires specific actions and directives from our nation's chief Emergency Management Agency to prepare for and respond to nuclear incidents in the United States. These NRF nuclear incident directives can then be compared to the nuclear incident directives given by each state legislature. LENA creates these visual representations by referring to the PHASYS Legal Database. The Legal Database is a comprehensive database of the laws and regulations directing emergency preparedness and response activities in several states which can be searched by using keywords for a given action (e.g. quarantine, evacuate or report); emergency type (e.g. fire, flood, earthquake); and/or by organization (e.g. Emergency Medical System, governmental public health, or employer). From the database, LENA reduces each of these relationships to a form that can be visualized. In particular, the laws are coded to denote the actions, purposes, goals, and conditions each agent was directed to undertake by their respective legislature. Employing quantitative research methods and SPSS and UCINET software, the legal networks undergirding the nationΓÇÖs PHS emergency preparedness and response capacity can be demonstrated and analyzed. In its current iteration, LENA allows for comparison in the legal structure undergirding preparedness for and response to emergencies with public health consequences. Systematic coding of the laws and mapping of emergency preparedness and response capacity enables policy makers to visualize network strengths and weaknesses and enables them to draw upon the disaster experience and legislative response of other jurisdictions, and thus improve emergency preparedness and response capacity in their jurisdiction. However, other types of relationships could be explored with additions to the legal database.The coded sections of relevant statutes and regulations currently reside in the PHASYS Legal Database, which is publicly-accessible and searchable. BenefitsAllows users to visualize legally required relationships, without the need to read statutory text firstDevelopment StatusPrototype

*Principal Investigator

Name: David Galloway

Department: GSPH-Public Health Dynamics Lab (PHDL)

Name: Hasan Guclu

Department: GSPH-Health Policy & Management

Name: Christopher Keane

Department: GSPH-Behavioral & Community Health Sciences

Name: Mary Krauland

Department: GSPH-Public Health Dynamics Lab (PHDL)

Name: Margaret Potter

Department: GSPH-Health Policy & Management

Name: Patricia Sweeney

Department: GSPH-Health Policy & Management

Name: Elizabeth Van Nostrand

Department: GSPH-Health Policy & Management

Country/Region

USA