Child Health Services

Projects

Current Projects

• Expansion of the Region IV Network for Data Management and Utilization Project to Address Issues Related to the Evaluation of the Impact of Family Planning – Building on a project that started in 1983, this project maintains and strengthens the eight DHHS Region IV states’ maternal and child health (MCH), family planning, and women’s health agencies’ capacity to identify factors that contribute to the high infant mortality rate in the region and key non-reproductive women’s health problems; strengthens the MCH, family planning, and women’s health agencies’ leadership role in planning, promoting, coordinating, and providing health care to address the problems identified; and fosters coordination and cooperation between the state MCH, family planning, and women’s health agencies and their state statistical agencies.

  Project Director: Priscilla A. Guild, M.S.P.H.

  Funding Source: Office of Population Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

  Total Project Period: 10/90 – 09/08 (renewable)
  
  

• Smoke-Free Families Program National Dissemination Office – Since 1994, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has funded Smoke-Free Families (SFF): Innovations to Stop Smoking During and Beyond Pregnancy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). This initiative sought to identify evidence-based approaches for reducing tobacco use during pregnancy and to select an effective cessation counseling intervention for pregnant women. During this first phase of the project it was found that a brief cessation counseling session of 5 to 15 minutes, when delivered by a trained provider with the provision of pregnancy-specific, self-help materials, increases rates of cessation among pregnant smokers. The identification of this intervention has signaled both new opportunities for improving prenatal care and new research challenges for improving the treatment of pregnant smokers. The RWJF is addressing these opportunities and challenges through a second phase with two core components: a National Program Office (NPO) at the UAB to coordinate ongoing intervention research and a National Dissemination Office (NDO). The Sheps Center was designated the NDO and is undertaking health services research and other efforts to increase the adoption, reach, and impact of evidence-based behavioral intervention strategies for pregnant smokers. In particular, the NDO is collaborating with relevant organizations and agencies to increase the numbers of systems and practitioners providing evidence-based interventions for pregnant smokers and the numbers of individuals receiving the evidence-based intervention.

  Principal Investigator: Cathy L. Melvin, M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  Total Project Period: 05/00 – 06/08 (extended)
  
  

• Evaluation of Healthy Start Baby Love Plus Initiatives to Address Racial Disparities in the Eastern, Northeastern, and TriadRegions of North Carolina – Project is evaluating the effectiveness of the North Carolina Healthy Start Baby Love Plus Initiatives to reduce disparities in infant mortality through enhanced community capacity, responsibility, and ownership of infant mortality reduction efforts and enhanced individual perinatal services in Bertie, Edgecombe, Greene, Martin, Pitt, Tyrrell, and Washington counties (East); Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Nash, and Northampton counties (Northeast); and Forsyth and Guilford counties (Triad). The evaluation compares the program counties and three matched sets of comparison counties with similar demographic and health status profiles and includes measures of services provided, the systems of care, community involvement, and sustainability.

  Principal Investigators: Milton Kotelchuck, Ph.D. (97-01) and Julia L. DeClerque, Dr.P.H. (since 01)

  Funding Source: Maternal and Child Health Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (subcontract with N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, Women’s and Children’s Health Section)

  Total Project Period: 12/97 – 06/10
  
  

• Forsyth County Department of Public Health Infant Mortality Program Evaluation – Project is advising Forsyth County’s Infant Mortality Reduction Coalition’s administrative and management teams on the design and implementation of a practical strategy for evaluating their programs to improve pregnancy outcomes for the families in Forsyth County. In addition, Baby-Love Plus data on Community Health Advocate’s outreach and referral activities in their area is being provided.

  Principal Investigator: Julia L. DeClerque, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.

  Funding Source: Forsyth County Department of Public Health

  Total Project Periods: 07/02 – 06/04, 02/20/06 – 06/30/08
  
  
  

• Access to Pediatric Subspecialty Care in the United States – The specific aims of this project are to: 1) depict the practice location of pediatric and adult subspecialists; 2) explore the relationship between county characteristics and access to pediatric subspecialty care; 3) ascertain the extent to which adult subspecialists expand access to care for children with rheumatic diseases; 4) describe the practice patterns of subspecialists, their comfort with treating a variety of pediatric conditions, and the practice, provider, and market characteristics that influence their decisions to treat pediatric patients; and 5) determine the independent effects of selected training, personal, and practice characteristics on the likelihood that an adult subspecialist treats pediatric patients. In addition, two pilot studies are being conducted that explore the role of general pediatricians in treating children with rheumatic conditions and compare care received across physician management types for children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

  Principal Investigator: Michelle L. Mayer, R.N., M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K02 Award)

  Total Project Period: 09/03 – 08/07
  
  

• State Title V Performance Indicator and Needs Assessment Evaluation – This project is examining the priority needs identified by the 59 states and jurisdictions in 2005 and compare them to those identified in 2000. A comprehensive review of the State and Jurisdiction Needs Assessments will explore the inclusion or exclusion of other needs. Performance measures selected by the states will be evaluated to see how well the identified needs are being addressed. In future years, actual performance for the measures selected will be reviewed for all states and jurisdictions (optional year 1) and specific measures and states will be selected for further evaluation (optional year 2) to identify “Promising Practices” to improve the health of mothers and children.

  Principal Investigator: Victoria Freeman, R.N., Dr.P.H.

  Funding Source: Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

  Total Project Period: 09/25/06 – 09/24/07 (renewable)
  
  

• Generalist-Specialist Interface in the Care of Children With Special Health Care Needs – Project will assistance with the instrument development, resaerch design, data collection, and analysis in a stucy of the generalist-specialist interface in the care of children with special health care needs.

  Principal Investigator: Michelle L. Mayer, R.N., M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: AccessCare

  Total Project Period: 10/06 – 09/07
  
  

• GeographicAccess to Pediatric Surgical Care in the United States – Using the 2005 American Medical Association Physician Masterfile and zip code level data from Claritas, specialty-specific estimates will be generated and provider maps will be drawn for: 1) the population weighted average distance to a provider and 2) the percent of children who live within a relatively short driving distance to a providers. Additional analyses will be done as part of the preiously described K02 award on Access to Pediatric Subspecialty Care in the United States.

  Principal Investigator: Michelle L. Mayer, R.N., M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Research Council

  Total Project Period: 12/06 – 11/07
  
  

• The Reauthorization of Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) Payment Program: Data Collection Instruments and Analysis Plan – There have been major changes occurring in Pediatric resident education in the last half-decade. The initiation of the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Payment Program (CHGME), structured to provide funds for graduate medical education to free-standing children's teaching hospitals, has most likely enabled Pediatric residency programs to stay current with the above-mentioned changes and implement new training regimens. Congress now requires documentation of the progress and accomplishments of the CHGME program. This project is to develop, pilot test, and finalize the survey for administration to recipients of the CHGME program to document the impact of this program.

  Principal Investigator: Michelle L. Mayer, R.N., M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: Bureau of Health Professions, HRSA (subcontract with Quality Resource Systems, Inc.)

  Total Project Period: 04/02/07 – 10/01//07

Recently Completed Projects

• Smoke-Free Families Communications Support – This project is being done in conjunction with the work of the Smoke-Free Families National Dissemination Office listed previously. As many as 20 percent of women smoke during pregnancy despite the fact that smoking is the most important modifiable cause of poor birth outcome. Smoke-Free Families and other research have established the “5 A’s” method as an evidence-based brief counseling intervention that doubles or triples quit rates among pregnant smokers. Ensuring that every pregnant smoker receives the “5 A’s” method as a routine part of prenatal care has the potential to dramatically improve child and maternal health. This project is supporting implementation of the National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit Action Plan, a comprehensive marketing plan to support full dissemination of the “5 A’s” method and related interventions. The Smoke-Free Families National Dissemination Office is coordinating this effort with the internationally-recognized Porter Novelli social marketing firm in Washington, D.C. and over 40 partner organizations who constitute the National Partnership. This project will be considered successful if by 2005 the “5 A’s” method becomes the standard of care for all pregnant women.

  Principal Investigator: Cathy L. Melvin, M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  Total Project Period: 05/02 – 06/07 (extended)
  
  

• System-Level Prenatal and Postpartum Tobacco Treatment in Ohio: Assessment, Development, and Assurance – This project is assessing the support systems that encourage providers in four high-risk counties in Ohio to screen all pregnant and postpartum women for tobacco use and uniformly and consistently treat those who smoke with a proven cessation treatment (5A’s); evaluate messages used in the media and in clinical and other settings to help pregnant smokers quit; and incorporate client and household member feedback about participation in and satisfaction with tobacco treatment services in order to identify and mitigate barriers to quitting. Through this project the Ohio Department of Health will be assisted in the development of an ongoing evaluation plan to reflect the impact and outcome measures needed to assess program participation and program fidelity.

  Principal Investigator: Cathy L. Melvin, M.P.H., Ph.D.

  Funding Source: Ohio Department of Health

  Total Project Period: 12/05 – 06/07