Informational
MCHB
TVIS Web Reports Updated
The new TVIS Web Reports from the MCHB are now available. The website has been redesigned to reflect the new reporting requirements contained in the 2015 Application/Annual Report Guidance and help communicate to the public how Title V programs are impacting health outcomes and improving accountability. TVIS Web Reports presents the Title V data in charts, graphs and tabular reports and now provides the ability to download the charts and data for one’s own use.
Office of Minority Health
National Minority Health Month Resources
April is National Minority Health Month and the OMH presents a collection of resources to spread awareness. The theme for 2016 is “Accelerating Health Equity for the Nation.” Resources include social media events, Twitter hashtags, graphics, and talking points and messaging.
Pediatrics
Special Supplement on ASD
April is Autism Awareness Month and Pediatrics has published a special supplement on health care and medical treatment of children and adolescents with ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. This issue is the second Pediatrics supplement from the MCHB’s AIR-P and ATN.
USDA
Nutrition Roadmap Advances Research to Provide More Individualized Advice
The USDA ICHNR has released the first Nutrition Research Roadmap (PDF) designed to guide federal nutrition research. The 2016–2021 National Nutrition Research Roadmap encourages an increased focus on research that can lead to more individualized advice for promoting health and preventing disease. The Roadmap emphasizes addressing research gaps concerning nutrition-related chronic diseases and health disparities, particularly for at-risk groups such as pregnant women, children and older adults. It gives special consideration in understanding the role of nutrition for optimal performance and military readiness.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
2016 First Food Forum: Achieving Health Equity in Every Community Highlights
On March 30 to April 1, more than 180 leaders gathered in Washington, DC to explore racial bias, barriers to breastfeeding and actions toward health equity at the 2016 First Food Forum hosted by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This Storify (content from various media put into a timeline to tell a story) presents highlights from the Forum including a summary of presentations and selected videos from the event.
Training and Educational
MCHWDC
Health Transformations in MCH Webinars — Spring Seminar Series for Title V Professionals
April 17 to June 17, 2016
The National MCHWDC will offer a free 8-week seminar series on health transformation in MCH to explore a series of health topics including the ACA, MCH financing, leadership, quality improvement, and others. This 8-seminar module can be completed at your convenience between April 17 and June 17 using an online learning platform. The Series will provide learning opportunities and implementation strategies, and culminate with a chance to share what you’ve learned at an optional free Summer Skills Institute in Chapel Hill, NC.
MCHB Office of Epidemiology and Research
Secondary Use of Electronic Health Data for Child Health Research: Opportunities and Challenges Webinar
Thursday, May 5, 2016
1:30 to 2:30pm Eastern
EnRICH (Research Innovations & Challenges) is a series of webinars that feature special topics related to MCH research. Each event features 1 or more speakers who are experts in the field. This event features Dr. Robert Grundmeier, a practicing Primary Care Pediatrician at The CHOP and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. The learning objectives for this webinar are to understand the types of data readily available in EHRs that support child health research activities; recognize the challenges with cleaning and organizing electronic health data before statistical analyses can be performed; and gain a practical understanding of how researchers working with the AAP are using data from an EHR “supernetwork” to conduct cutting-edge research.
University of Minnesota School of Public Health
National Maternal Nutrition Intensive Course
July 27 to 29, 2016
Minneapolis, MN
The purpose is to enable the learner to describe ways that appropriate nutrition services can improve pregnancy outcomes, describe the effect of maternal eating behaviors on birth outcomes and infant health status and development and identify characteristics of model programs and counseling approaches for maternal and infant nutritional health. This continuing education program is designed for dietitians, nutritionists, certified nurse midwives, registered nurses and nurse practitioners, physicians and public health professionals who serve preconceptual, pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women.
Funding Opportunities
MCHB
MCH Workforce Development Center
May 5, 2016
This announcement solicits applications for the MCH Workforce Development Center Program from the MCHB. The purpose of the MCHWDC Program is to support workforce development for State Title V program leaders and staff to meet current public health MCH policy and programmatic imperatives around health transformation, including ongoing transformation of the Title V Block Grant and continued implementation of health reform at the state and national levels. The MCH Workforce Development Center will focus on 3 key topic areas around health transformation:
- Systems integration
- Change management and adaptive leadership
- Evidence-based decision making
The MCHWDC awardee will be responsible for coordinating and implementing a national training strategy to address all 3 key issues within the Center’s purview. National strategies must focus on building capacity of current and future State Title V MCH leaders and staff in the 59 states and jurisdictions.
MCHB
Bridging the Word Gap Research Network
May 9, 2016
This announcement the MCHB solicits applications for the Bridging the Word Gap Research Network Program. This cooperative agreement opportunity will establish and maintain a national interdisciplinary research network designed to reduce the vocabulary gap between children from low-SES families as compared to children from higher-SES families. The research network will foster scientific collaboration, with a focus on research designed to develop and test interventions to improve early language exposure, vocabulary acquisition, and language development for children from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds, including Dual Language Learners. The Network should include researchers across a range of disciplines reflecting attention to the health and development of the child and family.
MCHB
Children’s Healthy Weight Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network
May 17, 2016
The MCHB is accepting applications for fiscal year 2016 Children’s Healthy Weight CoIIN. The purpose of this program is to increase the proportion of children and young adults ages birth to 21 years who fall within a healthy weight range by supporting states to adopt evidence-based or evidence-informed policies and practices related to nutrition, physical activity, and breastfeeding that support healthy weight behaviors. The Children’s Healthy Weight CoIIN will support implementation of the Title V Block Grant transformation by supporting states’ efforts to address the new NPMs by accelerating improvement and innovation in integrating and translating evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies into practice through collaborative learning in order to achieve the greatest collective impact at the state level. The Children’s Healthy Weight CoIIN will align and synergize with other MCHB investments, including Healthy Start, Home Visiting, and Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems to support states in areas related to nutrition, physical activity, and breastfeeding and will build on lessons learned from the MCHB Pediatric Obesity Mini CoIIN.
MCHB
MCH Measurement Research Network
May 27, 2016
Measures are essential to identifying needs, recording trends, and informing programs and policies. MCH stakeholders are faced with challenges in accessing and using available data tools. The purpose of the MCH-MRN from the MCHB is to support a forum that will create a national agenda for health measurement research by producing an evolving compendium of available high quality measures of MCH, and by identifying gaps in existing measures for future development purposes. The MCH-MRN will thus provide national leadership in enhancing and developing a set of culturally appropriate health measures.
National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health
National Institute of Children’s Health Care Quality
Initiative to Improve Children's Vision
April 25, 2016
The NCCVEH and NICHQ are issuing a call for applications to public health professionals, early educators, community vision programs, eye care professionals, primary healthcare provider groups and family advocates to join the quality improvement collaborative, Improving Children's Vision: Systems, Stakeholders & Support. The mission of this collaborative is to achieve, in 18 months, improvements in the systems supporting children's vision and eye health in a minimum of 5 carefully selected states. The result will be comprehensive and coordinated approaches to children's vision and eye health and a reduced prevalence of vision problems in hard-to-reach populations of young children. The project aim is to increase by 20 percent over 2011–2012 levels the proportion of children aged 5 years and younger who receive vision screening and diagnosis in 5 states by the year 2018.
HRSA
Innovation in Care Integration for Children and Youth with ASD/DD
May 10, 2016
This announcement solicits applications for the Innovation in Care Integration for Children and Youth with ASD/DD Program. This program supports the implementation of innovative, evidence-informed strategies to integrate care at a system-level within a state for children and youth with ASD and other DD, with a special emphasis on medically underserved populations. The target population for this program is all children and youth within a state identified as at risk for or diagnosed with ASD/DD. Using the care integration framework recommended by the AAP, the care for children and youth with ASD/DD within the state will be integrated across systems to improve access to appropriate screening, referral, diagnosis, care coordination, and services. Recipients/awardees will implement innovative, evidence-informed models of (1) family support and navigation, (2) shared resources, and (3) telehealth and/or telemedicine health information technologies.
RWJF
Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity
May 11, 2016 (Concept paper)
Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity is a RWJF national program. The program supports research on environmental and policy strategies with strong potential to promote healthy eating among children to prevent childhood obesity, especially among groups at highest risk for obesity: black, Latino, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, and children who live in lower-income communities (urban, suburban, and/or rural). Findings are expected to advance RWJF’s efforts to help all children achieve a healthy weight, promote health equity, and build a Culture of Health. This call for proposals is for 2 types of awards aimed at providing advocates, decision-makers, and policymakers with evidence to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic. The award types are: Round 10 grants and RWJF New Connections grants awarded through the Healthy Eating Research program.
SAMHSA
National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative TSA Centers
May 11, 2016
The SAMHSA, CMHS, is accepting applications for fiscal year 2016 NCTSI - Category II, TSA Centers grants. The purpose of the Category II, TSA Centers is to provide national expertise for specific types of traumatic events, population groups and service systems, and support the specialized adaptation of effective evidence-based treatment and service approaches for communities across the nation. To date, the NCTSI has developed and implemented evidence-based interventions and promising practices to reduce immediate distress from exposure to traumatic events; developed and provided training in trauma-focused approaches and services for use in child mental health clinics, schools, child welfare and juvenile justice settings, among other service areas; and developed widely used intervention protocols for disaster victims. The work of this initiative is carried out by a national network of grantees—the National Child Traumatic Stress Network—that works collaboratively to develop and promote evidence-based trauma treatment, services, and other resources for children, adolescents, and families exposed to an array of traumatic events.
HRSA
Newborn Screening Implementation Program Regarding Conditions Added to the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel
May 27, 2016
This announcement solicits applications for the Newborn Screening Implementation Program Regarding Conditions Added to the RUSP from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The overall goal for this initiative is to increase the number of newborns receiving early treatment for Pompe disease, Mucopolysaccharidosis I (MPS I), and X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD). Program activities supported by this funding opportunity must include the delivery of technical assistance (TA), education, and financial resources to support at least 15 state NBS programs (which may include state and/or local NBS programs) that have not, at the time of these program activities, fully implemented NBS for Pompe disease, MPS 1, and/or X-ALD (but that have demonstrated their readiness to fully implement NBS within 12 to 24 months), and which increases the number of newborns receiving appropriate screening and follow-up relative to these conditions.
NIH
Research on ASD
July 5, 2016 (R01)
July 16, 2016 (R03, R21)
This FOA encourages research grant applications to support research designed to elucidate the etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and optimal means of service delivery in relation to ASD. Basic, clinical, and applied studies are encouraged.
- R01 - Research Project Grant Program
- R03 - Small Grant Program
- R21 - Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award
NIH
Environmental Contributors to ASD
July 26, 2016 (Letter of Intent)
August 26, 2016 (Application)
The purpose of this FOA is to stimulate and foster research to (1) identify environmental contributors to risk and expression of ASD and (2) understand how environmental factors impact the underlying biologic processes implicated in ASD. A range of approaches are being encouraged by this FOA, from basic mechanistic studies using in vitro and in vivo model systems to studies that add new data collection activities and/or make use of extant data or biospecimens in existing human studies. Studies that address hypotheses related to the joint contribution of genes and environment are of particular interest. It is anticipated that knowledge gained from the research supported by this FOA will be used to inform public health prevention and intervention strategies.