EPIDEMIOLOGY & EVALUATION

Current Initiatives

Our Equity, Epidemiology and Evaluation team advocates for the effective use of evidence-based strategies, quality data, valid and reliable measures, and effective data translation and communication.

Current Initiatives

AMCHP believes that leaders can be developed by enhancing one’s natural ability with learned skill development through formal and informal learning opportunities, experience, dialogue, role modeling, feedback, mentoring, coaching, and more. For over 20 years AMCHP has had leadership development programs for Families, MCH, Title V and CYSHCN Directors.

All members of the state and territorial MCH programs are entrusted with carrying out the mission of Title V. As such, all Title V staff must exhibit leadership skills on a daily basis, from interacting with stakeholders to communicating the importance of Title V. AMCHP’s Leadership Lab program develops the entire Title V workforce. The program allows Title V staff to learn from one another across the workforce (Family Leaders, new Title V and MCH Directors, CYSHCN Directors, Next Generation MCH Leaders, state Title V Epidemiologist and Adolescent Health Leaders), as well as those with similar roles.

P2P MCH Epi-Net aims to build/enhance leadership competencies used in combination with epidemiology, analytic, and other professional skillsets to have positive impacts on: On Self, On Others, and On a wider community.

Benefits

Increased understanding of how effective leadership skills can enhance epidemiology/data specialist career and professional pathways.

A widening of network of MCH epidemiology/data specialists, and other Title V professionals.
Receiving one-on-one mentoring from MCH epidemiology/data professionals.
Enhancement of critical thinking skills on how to combine and utilize leadership skills and knowledge of MCH epidemiology/analytic topics and methods to maximize leadership impact.
Increased understanding of AMCHP and increased knowledge and utilization of available tools and resources.

The Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs held its 2021 Annual Conference virtually on May 24-27, 2021. There were 1337 registered attendees at the 2021 AMCHP Annual Conference, which is an attendance record. The conference evaluation survey was sent to 1274 registered attendees who agreed to be contacted while registering for the conference. By the end of a three-week survey period (June 1-21), AMCHP had received 305 survey responses for a survey response rate of 23.9%.

Annually, the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) surveys its membership to obtain assessments of AMCHP services/products and collect suggestions on how AMCHP can improve the value of their membership.

2021 Member Assessment: In September 2021, AMCHP administered an Annual Member Assessment survey to 372 members and received 123 survey responses. This document is a summary of assessments of the overall AMCHP membership experience and a detailed focus on two areas identified as top system-level priorities by member respondents: equity and workforce retention.
2020 Member Assessment: In July 2020, AMCHP administered an Annual Member Assessment survey to 314 members and received 142 survey responses. This document is a summary of assessments of the overall AMCHP membership experience and an overview of other topic areas.

With funding provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in 2013, an expert panel of MCH members from seven states—Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, and North Carolina—compiled a list of 59 Life Course Indicators (LCI). The primary purpose for creation of the LCI was to provide states’ Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs the abilities to measure and assess factors that can influence health trajectories over the life course. The Life Course Indicators cover a broad swath of topics including oral health, breastfeeding, bullying, unemployment, household food insecurity, mental health among adults, smoking and alcohol use among adolescents, and homelessness.

Currently, the team offers technical assistance (TA) support in life course indicator analysis, calculations, and location of data components, among other TA requests.

View the Life Course Indicators Online Tool

The Graduate Student Epidemiology Program (GSEP) is a Maternal and Child Health leadership program and internship opportunity. GSEP is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a department of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and has been around since 1997. The program has trained over 400 students. After a four-year hiatus from 2017 to 2020, GSEP relaunched in Summer 2021 with a cohort of 20 students. The application process, orientation, and 10-week summer internship experience are led by the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). Students will receive a $7,000 stipend provided by AMCHP.

GSEP 2022 will be a full-time, 40 hour per week remote experience requiring no relocation. While the internship will be remote, student interns will have the opportunity for optional in-person site visits during the first three weeks of their internships, with travel and lodging covered by AMCHP. Although different than in past years, this creates an opportunity for a more inclusive program. Students who might have been unable to relocate for the summer due to expense or commitment will be able to participate this year. Remote work also expands the list of possible host sites that may have been limited due to location or cost of living (e.g., those in Hawaii, Alaska, U.S. Territories, or Freely Associated States).

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EPIDEMIOLOGY & EVALUATION

Recent Resources & Tools

AMCHP TA Roundtable Series: Exploring Birth Defects Surveillance Programs and Evaluating Referral to Services

Watch the third session of our Virtual Roundtable Series: “Exploring Birth Defects Surveillance Programs & Evaluating Referral to Services." AMCHP’s Epidemiology, Evaluation, & Metrics team to discuss strategies for BDSPs and Title V/CYSHCN to consider when evaluating referrals to services, focusing on equity and centering the families’ experiences. Whether you’re just beginning to explore referrals to services or you have a long-standing program, evaluation is crucial!

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Tracking Progress Towards Your Goals (Key Performance Indicators) – IHLC Webinar February 2023

Recording from February 2023. AMCHP's Evidence & Implementation team introduces the basic concepts of key performance indicators (KPIs), their relationship to strategic goals, and dicusses how tools such as PDSA Cycles, Aim Statements, and KPI Trees can be used to track organizational or programmatic progress towards strategic goals. Read More

Using Evidence to Drive Incremental Change: Sept 2022 CELC Training Webinar

Recording from September 2022. AMCHP's Evidence and Implementation team reviews the components of process evaluation and introduces the stages of practice implementation. The team also demonstrates the uses of a PDSA (Plan Do Study Act) cycle in developing an implementation plan. Read More

August 16 Round Table: My Evaluation is Done. What’s Next?

Recording from August 16, 2022. AMCHP's Equity, Epidemiology, and Evaluation team presents on using evidence and evaluation to implement change in your telehealth program. Read More

Big Data for Epidemiology: Applied Data Analysis Using National Health Surveys

This open education resource was developed to train future public health professionals how to conduct secondary data analysis of national health surveys using SAS statistical software. SAS software was selected because it is one of the most commonly used software programs used among public health departments and academia. The book includes details on how to analyze public-use data from five common national health surveys, including the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and National Health and Nutrition and Examination Survey (NHANES). All datasets and corresponding syntax files are available from the Open ICPSR Data Repository.

Author: Tiffany B. Kindratt
Contributor: Peace Ossom-Williamson
Publisher: Mavs Open Press
Publication Date: August 1, 2022
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64816-003-5

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