News

Reducing Vision Impairment in Young Children is Focus of New Initiative

NICHQ is partnering with the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) on a new project to increase the detection and diagnosis of visual impairment in children ages 0-5.

The goal of the three year Maternal and Child Health Bureau-funded project, called “Improving Children’s Vision: Systems, Stakeholders & Support,” is to support the development of comprehensive and coordinated approaches to children’s vision and eye health in five states. The project will employ quality improvement (QI) principles and practices to implement systems-level changes that will:

• Strengthen statewide partnerships and coordination among key stakeholders in children’s vision and eye health
• Increase access to and utilization of vision health services in hard to reach communities
• Increase early detection and treatment of vision problems
• Establish state-level surveillance approaches 
• Implement vision health system measures of accountability

NICHQ will provide foundational support for the QI initiative and orchestrate an all-virtual learning collaborative. 

“NICHQ has a proven track record when it comes to convening learning collaboratives, providing the necessary support to achieve systems level improvements and getting results,” says NICHQ Senior Director of Programs, Research and Evaluation Marianne McPherson, PhD, MS. “We’re very excited to be working with a new partner and to see positive change in helping children with visual impairments get the early support they need.”

Through the learning collaborative, the five states will work together jointly to identify challenges, interventions, implementation and measurement related to implementing system-level changes that will result in improved vision in young children.

“A critical health area in a young child’s life that fully demonstrates the impact of early experiences on a child’s long-term development is the health of the child’s eyes and their ability to see clearly so they can fully engage in their world. It is critical that a strong system for children’s vision exists to ensure that vision problems are identified and treated at their earliest possible opportunity,” says NCCVEH Director Kira Baldonado. “We are excited about our opportunity to work with NICHQ to improve state-level vision programs through a formal quality improvement process.”