NICHQxAMCHP: Reflections from AMCHP 2026
Several National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) staff members attended this year’s Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) Annual Conference from March 7-10, 2026, in Washington, DC. This year’s theme, “The Power of Connection,” emphasized a key tenet of our work: relationships, partnerships, and shared purposes are essential to improving maternal and child health outcomes.
On the first day of the conference, NICHQ’s Healthy Start Technical Assistance & Support Center (TASC) sponsored two skill-building sessions, ‘Maternal Health 101’ and ‘Stories for Change: Tools, Methods, and Best Practices to Weave Community-Based Storytelling Across MCH.’ These sessions focused on the power of data sources and the realities of communities in storytelling. Attendees had the opportunity to network and share resources to inform their approaches to maternal and child health work.
On day three, the Maternal Health Action & Resource Center (MHARC) held a networking event for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) State Maternal Health Innovation (SMHI) grantees to attend. The MHARC team was grateful for the opportunity to connect with SMHI grantees, HRSA Project Officers, and MHARC Collaborative Partners and Subject Matter Experts during the event, which was hosted at Busboys and Poets. Attendees were able to get to know each other and engage in meaningful conversations about the important work that is being done in each state.
Earlier that afternoon, Sandra Widland, MPH, NICHQ Senior Project Director, was a co-presenter of a session titled, “Connecting Quality Improvement, Health Care Transition, and Pediatric Specialty Clinics to Impact Critical Care Outcomes for Youth with Special Health Care Needs.” The session highlighted Florida’s CYSHCN program and NICHQ’s partnership on a five-year, cutting-edge, statewide Quality Improvement (QI) journey with 29 pediatric specialty clinical teams to improve health care transition (HCT) for CYSHCN. Ofelia A. Alvarez, M.D., director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell Program at the University of Miami Medicine, also joined the presentation to share her insights and learnings as a member of one of the project’s specialty networks focused on hematology.
Following the presentation, Dr. Alvarez shared her appreciation for participating in the Learning and Action Network and working with NICHQ’s team to implement QI strategies into her work.
“The Learning and Action Network that I participated in really was great because, as a provider, I don’t have a lot of time to learn about quality improvement,” Dr. Alvarez said. “So, having people that know about it, who we have regular meetings with, really helped me to be able to change my culture and to try to do everything in a very systematic way to improve the quality of care for the patients that I work with. I was really happy to participate in this network.”
As we reflect on the AMCHP 2026 theme, “The Power of Connection,” we look forward to continued collaboration and shared learning with our partners and friends in maternal and child health.
