MCH Training and Research Alert A Monthly Alert from the Maternal & Child Health Training and Research Resource Center

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INFORMATION RESOURCES

KidsWell

Health Reform Advocacy Campaign

This national advocacy campaign focused on successful health reform implementation on behalf of children provides timely health reform information and resources from organizations working to increase health insurance coverage for children and their families.

  • Track health reform by state or topic
  • Find health data and health care reform facts
  • View national comparison maps that show how states match up on implementation
  • Find resources developed by KidsWell partners
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Getting Ready for Quality Improvement

Compilation of Resources

This guide was developed to help the MCH community become better acquainted with quality improvement. This guide identifies resources based on the learner’s time available or how they are most comfortable learning:

  1. Quick References on Methods and Tools
  2. Quick Study YouTube Videos
  3. Short Web Tutorials
  4. Links to Resource Organizations
  5. Journal Articles and White Papers
  6. Presentations/Trainings
  7. Selected Examples of QI in Practice

The Guide was prepared by MCHB’s Division of MCH Workforce Development and Office of Policy Coordination.

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The Blue Zones Project in Iowa

Fact Sheet

Iowa wants to become the healthiest state in the nation by 2016, and one of the centerpieces of its plan is the Blue Zones Project, a cutting-edge program to improve individual health through community-wide environmental and social change. Project partners (Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Healthways, and Blue Zones) and local leaders, are working to restructure communities to guide residents toward healthier behaviors. This Promising Practices in MCH fact sheet describes the evidence and theory behind the Blue Zones Project and how stakeholders in 19 demonstration sites are working to make healthy lifestyles the local custom.

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TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - Webinars

Applied Missing Data Analysis

February 25, 2013
2:00pm - 3:30pm EST

This webinar presented by Craig Enders, PhD, of Arizona State University has 3 learning objectives:

  1. Provide a conceptual overview of missing data theory and assumptions.
  2. Discuss “traditional” missing data techniques that are widely available in software packages and demonstrate their shortcomings.
  3. Provide researchers with a conceptual overview of 2 “modern missing data handling methods:” multiple imputation and maximum likelihood estimation.

EnRICH is a series of webinars that feature special topics related to MCH research. Each event features speakers who are experts in the field. EnRICH webinars are conducted by the MCH Training and Research Resource Center which is funded by the MCHB’s Division of Research, Training, and Education.

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Practical Applications: Life Course Approach

February 26, 2013
3:00pm - 4:00pm EST

This DataSpeak will feature 3 ways that researchers and practitioners are using data and the life course approach. According to MCHB, this approach “looks at health as an integrated continuum and suggests that a complex interplay of biological, behavioral, psychological, social, and environmental factors contribute to health outcomes across the course of a person’s life.” Presenters are:

  • Cheri Pies, MSW, DrPH
    University of California’s Berkeley School of Public Health
  • William Sappenfield, PhD
    University of South Florida
  • Caroline Stampfel, MPH
    Association of MCH Programs
  • Whitney P. Witt, PhD, MPH
    University of Wisconsin Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health

DataSpeak, funded by the Office of Epidemiology and Research at MCHB, is a series of Web conferences that feature special topics related to MCH data. Contact dataspeak@altarum.org for more information.

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Interdisciplinary Professional Training and Systems Integration through Distance Learning

March 1, 2013
11:00am - 12:00pm EST

Join the MCH Training’s Distance Learning grantees for the First Friday Webinar Series and learn about methods and strategies to effectively train MCH audiences through online learning. Each webinar in the series has a focus on one of the “Big I’s” – Innovation, Quality Improvement, Systems Integration, Investments, Interdisciplinary Training, and Impact. This webinar will also include background information, promising practices from the field, and where to go for more information about distance learning.

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Oral-Systemic Health in Graduate Nursing Programs

March 5, 2013
1:00pm - 2:00pm EST

The presenters will provide strategies and resources for faculty to use in integrating oral health competencies and content in graduate programs. Strategies will also be relevant to engaging learners from different professions in innovative interprofessional oral-systemic health teaching learning experiences that use technology to promote collaborative practice as oral health has a significant impact on the overall health and well-being of people across the life span. Advanced Practice nurses have a key role to play in promoting this oral-systemic health.

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Life Course: Integration of Science & Practice

March 15, 2013
12:30pm - 5:00pm EST
Knoxville, TN

The spring 2013 Promoting Healthy Weight Colloquium will cover the MCH Life Course Framework, including how neurobiological and social determinants relate to health outcomes and the framework’s relationship to programs and services to promote healthy weight. Colloquium presentations are intended for practitioners, family members and researchers. Presenters include:

  • Deborah Allen, ScD
    Boston Public Health Commission
  • Stephanie Hall, MD, MCH
    Cherokee Health Systems
  • Terri Combs-Orme, PhD
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Registration is open until March 12, and presentations are available in person and online.

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TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Health Disparities Research Conference

April 25-26, 2013
Washington, DC

Researchers, advocates, and policymakers in racial and ethnic disparities and disability-related disparities will come together to:

  • Learn about barriers to health care and health promotion for people with disabilities in underserved racial and ethnic groups
  • Share their own work on health disparities at this intersection
  • Discuss priorities for future research and action.

The conference is part of Project Intersect: Addressing Health Disparities at the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, and Disability. It is based in the Institute on Development & Disability at Oregon Health & Science University.

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AAP Legislative Conference

April 28-30, 2013
Washington, DC

At this American Academy of Pediatrics conference, participants will learn about the Academy’s Federal policy priorities, attend interactive skills-building workshops on how to help advance child health legislation at the Federal level, hear first-hand from state and Federal government officials, and participate in meetings with U.S. legislators and their staff on Capitol Hill.

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Training Course in MCH Epidemiology

May 28 - June 1, 2013
Nashville, TN

MCHB and the CDC are offering a Training Course in MCH Epidemiology as part of their ongoing effort to enhance the analytic capacity of state and local health agencies. This national program is aimed primarily at professionals in state and local health agencies who have significant responsibility for collecting, processing, analyzing, and reporting MCH data. Faculty members working with state or local MCH departments are also eligible for the course. This year, the course is geared to individuals with basic to intermediate skills in using statistical and epidemiologic methods, preferably in MCH or a related field.

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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

CityMatCH: The Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes

March 1, 2013

CityMatCH, with funding from The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, introduces this high-visibility, national movement of urban communities bringing a scientific focus to increasing equity in birth outcomes. Institute teams will be based in local urban health departments, drawing in additional leadership and partners from other sectors.

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IHS: Indigenous Child Health

March 1, 2013

The purpose of this IHS cooperative agreement is to work closely with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and jointly sponsor the 5th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health which will take place April 19-21 in Portland, OR. This partnership will also include the Canadian Pediatric Society and the First Nations Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada. This meeting will bring together child health providers and researchers dedicated to working with AI/AN, First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children and families. The purpose of the meeting is to better understand the social and health needs of indigenous children internationally and to provide the opportunity for indigenous researchers and health professionals to share their experiences and findings. The overall goal is to improve quality, outcomes and access to health care services for indigenous children.

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March 5, 2013 (R01)
March 16, 2013 (R03, R21)

Applications are encouraged that propose to:

  • Foster multidisciplinary research that will evaluate how policies can influence school physical activity and nutrition environments, youth obesogenic behaviors, and weight outcomes.
  • Understand how schools are implementing policies and examine multilevel influences on adoption and implementation at various levels
  • Understand the synergistic or counteractive effect of school nutrition and physical activity polices on the home, and community environment, and body weight.
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SAMHSA: Statewide Family Network

March 7, 2013

The purpose of this program is to enhance state capacity and infrastructure to be more oriented to the needs of children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances and their families. These grants will provide information, referrals, and support to families who have a child with a serious emotional disturbance and create a mechanism for families to participate in state and local mental health services planning and policy development. Family-controlled domestic public and private nonprofit organizations in states, territories, and tribes are eligible.

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HRSA: Life Course Research Network

March 11, 2013

This cooperative agreement will support an life course research network (LCRN) focused on improving the understanding of socio-environmental determinants of health experienced at different life course stages for the MCH population through engagement of researchers, practitioners, policymakers and consumers in a collaborative, innovative, and multidisciplinary research project. The LCRN is designed to accelerate the translation of the life course theory to MCH practice and policy and foster its rapid adoption into clinical and public health practice through systems integration and collaboration with entities that have a common goal of improving MCH outcomes.

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HRSA: MCH Nutrition Training Program

March 22, 2013

This program improves access to quality health care by providing graduate education to nutritionists. MCH Nutrition students receive specialized training in core MCH public health principles, epidemiology, environmental approaches to population intervention, leadership skills, and the development and evaluation of nutrition-related, cost-effective interventions for specific populations. The program closely supports HRSA Strategic Goals. The MCH Training programs also address the childhood obesity epidemic in numerous ways.

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HRSA: MCH Knowledge to Practice Program

March 26, 2013

Knowledge to practice (KP) education methodologies, including distance learning and blended methods, provide effective and efficient means by which MCH professionals in practice enhance and advance their analytic, managerial, and clinical skills while continuing to meet their daily onsite responsibilities. KP projects should be designed to implement new and emerging technologies. The KP grants focus on increasing the skills of MCH professionals by facilitating the timely transfer of new information, research findings and technology related to MCH, and updating and improving the knowledge and skills of health and related professionals in programs serving mothers and children.

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HRSA: MCH Navigator Program

March 26, 2013

MCH Navigator projects should be designed to implement new and emerging technologies. The MCH Navigator Program is a cooperative agreement that complements the Knowledge to Practice (KP) grants, using a web site to link learners to open-access webcasts, presentations, instructional modules, and online courses covering essential MCH skills and knowledge. MCHB wants to assure that content developed by KP grants, MCH graduate education programs and continuing education developed by others is readily available to the wider MCH Title V and public health communities.

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NIH: Reproductive Medicine Network Coordinating Center

April 4, 2013

Applications from investigators willing to participate with the assistance of the NICHD under a cooperative agreement are invited. The investigator will act as the Data Coordinating Center in an ongoing multicenter clinical research program, the Cooperative Multicenter Reproductive Medicine Network. They will conduct intervention and observation studies using common protocols designed to facilitate diagnostic and therapeutic solutions to problems in reproductive medicine, gynecology, endocrinology, urology, and andrology that affect fertility.

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April 5, 2013

Small business concerns are invited to propose research to develop new devices and instruments, and/or improve existing devices and instruments, to monitor and treat newborn infants and small children safely and efficaciously.

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HRSA: EMS for Children Demonstration Projects

April 9, 2013

The program works to ensure that critically ill and injured children receive optimal pediatric emergency care.  Applicants should address specific needs in the field of pre-hospital pediatric emergency care that transcend State boundaries. Category I projects will demonstrate the establishment of an infrastructure for pediatric pre-hospital research. Category II projects will improve pediatric pre-hospital research. Typically, the projects result in a new product/resource or the demonstration of the effectiveness of a model system component or service of value to the nation.

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NIH: Disabilities Research Centers

April 9, 2013

Applications for research center cooperative agreements designed to advance the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and amelioration of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are invited. Applications from institutions that meet the qualifications for a multi-disciplinary program of IDD research will include:

  1. Cores that facilitate interdisciplinary and translational research in IDD, and support IDD-related projects funded by other sources
  2. At least 1 specific research project related to focus themes identified as an area of research need in IDD.

Funds for the majority of research projects using these core facilities come from independent sources including Federal, state, and private organizations.

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CDC: School-Based HIV/STD Prevention and Surveillance

April 26, 2013

The primary purpose of this funding:

  • Build the capacity of districts and schools to effectively contribute to the reduction of HIV infection and other STD among adolescents
  • Reduce of disparities in HIV infection and other STD experienced by specific adolescent sub-populations
  • Conduct school-based surveillance through YRBS and Profiles implementation.

Program activities are expected to reinforce efforts to reduce teen pregnancy rates due to the shared risk factors for, and intervention activities to address, HIV infection, other STD, and teen pregnancy.
CDC PGO TIMS: 770-488-2700 or pgotims@cdc.gov

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June 5, 2013 (R01)
June 16, 2013 (R21)

Purpose: to support effectiveness, outcomes and health services research in the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders mission areas of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech and language.

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