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: Julia L. DeClerque, Dr.P.H.
Funding Source: Office of Population Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Total Project Period: 10/90 – 10/10
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
Subcontract for Region IV Title X Family Planning Regional Training and Technical Assistance Project - Coalition for Excellence and Innovation in Family Planning Services, will provide comprehensive training and specialized technical assistance to family planning providers throughout the eight-state Region IV. The RTTAP will use a combination of face-to-face and innovative distance learning strategies that will support and enhance the delivery of high quality family planning services. We will provide expertise in the use of the Chronic Care Model for quality improvement, survey grantees to assess training and technical assistance needs, participate in the collaboratives, and assist with all distance learning activities and evaluation.
Principal Investigator: Cathy L. Melvin, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Funding Source: Cicatelli Associates Inc via Office of Public Health and Science
Total Project Period: 7/1/08 – 6/30/11
Assessment and Support for Achieving Prevention (ASAP) - The Health Care Division of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust (Trust) responds to health and wellness needs and invests in solutions that improve the quality of health for financially needy residents of North Carolina. The Supporting Prevention program area within this Division promotes wellness by providing services before conditions occur or are diagnosed. Disease and illness prevention and health promotion and wellness have been chosen as areas of special emphasis and priority. In 2007, the Trust invested in four community efforts to support prevention and health promotion activities. The grantee organizations are using Trust funds to promote healthy living and wellness programs among low income individuals in a number of North Carolina counties. The Trust has asked for assistance in two areas: 1) conducting an individual assessment of the efforts of each grantee organization to design and implement evaluations measuring the impact of their health promotion and disease prevention projects, and 2) providing guidance to the Trust on its grant making process for the prevention portfolio.
Principal Investigator: Cathy L. Melvin, M.P.H., Ph.D.
Funding Source: Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
Total Project Period: 10/01/08 – 05/31/09
Epidemiologist - This funding will include specific deliverables and services for state fiscal year 2008-2009. Deliverables and services include: 1. Complete the NC YTS Questionnaire, including core CDC questions and NC tailored questions by June 30, 2009 that is approved by CDC and all state partners. 2. Oversee and manage coordination of the YTS survey with key partners, including Department of Public Instruction, Health and Wellness Trust via their independent contractor the Tobacco Prevention Evaluation Project; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 3. Complete the administration of the survey in all schools that were selected by CDC random sample by October 31, 2009. Collect completed surveys by November 31,2009.4. Analyze data and generate reports March 2010-May 2010. 5. Negotiate the tobacco questions for the BRFSS 2009 survey in September-November 2009. 6. Generate reports from 2007 BRFSS on tobacco prevention and cessation. 7. These output measures/objectives will contribute to the overall TPCB goals. Other essential duties consist of facilitating program planning and implementation that augments the development and operations of the TPCB Surveillance and Evaluation Team, coordinating data analysis for North Carolina annual and biannual tobacco surveys, and preparing reports and presentations describing the health effects of tobacco use in populations utilizing qualitative and quantitative epidemiological research methods. This funding source provides a unique opportunity to build stronger relationships with the CDC Office of Smoking and Health, the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Working as a liaison, Dr. Leah Ranney, will provide up-to-date tobacco surveillance information to these organizations to help facilitate and direct future research in the field of tobacco prevention and cessation.
Principal Investigator: Cathy Melvin, PhD
Funding Source: NC Division of Public Health
Total Project Period: 6/1/09-3/29/10
Total Funding: Total: $51,835; Direct: $47,123; Indirect: $4,712
Recently Completed Projects
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 – 09/30/09
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 – 09/08
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
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
