NICHQ News

NICHQ is proud to announce it was selected to be the coordinating center for the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (NNPQC). In this role, NICHQ will serve as the resource hub for state-based perinatal quality collaboratives (PQCs) working on initiatives to improve maternal and child health outcomes. More specifically, NICHQ will provide change management and quality improvement (QI) technical assistance and facilitate network communication.

NICHQ’s expertise in running collaborative improvement and innovation networks (CoIINs) has landed it the role of leader of all CoIIN activities for a new Maternal and Child Environmental Health Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (MCEH CoIIN). The program aims to improve systems of care to address the needs of maternal, infant and child populations that are at risk for or experience exposure to lead.

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau has chosen NICHQ to lead a national initiative aimed at making infant safe sleep and breastfeeding the national norm. The five-year National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep Improvement and Innovation Network (NAPPSS-IIN) engages champions within the systems that intersect with infant caregivers and families at risk to disseminate infant safe sleep and breastfeeding messages.

As the leader of a multi-year, national initiative to reduce infant mortality rates and disparities across populations, NICHQ is heartened by the announcement March 21 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that U.S. infant mortality rates have decreased 15 percent from 2005 to 2014. The report also shows the U.S. infant mortality rate reached new lows for almost all populations.

NICHQ  is partnering in a research study of long-term impact of environmental exposures in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). The study, Developmental Impact of NICU Exposures (DINE), is led by investigators at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with funding from the National Institutes of Health as part of its seven-year Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes initiative (ECHO).

Two new members have been elected to NICHQ’s board of directors. Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, PhD, MPA-URP, and Gregory Serrao both bring unique skills and experiences in improving healthcare services and social determinants of health and health equity for children and underserved populations.

NICHQ today announced the launch of its annual campaign to combat infant mortality in conjunction with Infant Mortality Awareness Month. Throughout the month of September, NICHQ will continue its efforts to bring awareness to the shockingly high infant mortality rate in the United States while helping empower women to prepare for healthy pregnancies that result in healthy children.

NICHQ has again been chosen by the U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) to lead a critical program for improving the health of the nation’s children and families. NICHQ will be the coordinating center for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (ECCS CoIIN). The five-year initiative will support 12 states and their communities in an effort to enhance early childhood systems and demonstrate improved outcomes in population-based children’s developmental health and family well-being indicators.

NICHQ's flagship collaborative improvement and innovation network (CoIIN) initiative focused on reducing infant mortality rates, known as the Infant Mortality CoIIN, has been extended by one year, through September 2017. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) prolonged their funded initiative to support states in their improvement efforts including data collection and the dissemination of lessons learned.

NICHQ is working with the Institute for Medicaid Innovation (IMI) to reduce childhood obesity and improve treatment plans among Medicaid recipients. Over the course of two projects, known as the Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment (CHOPT) projects, NICHQ will conduct a series of face-to-face interviews with families about how obesity programs affect their health and convene a meeting of CHOPT stakeholders, including healthcare providers and families, to discuss childhood obesity and how to best address it in this targeted population.

Three states have been selected to participate in the Improving Children's Vision: Systems, Stakeholders & Support initiative aimed at making improvements in the systems supporting children's vision and eye health, with a special focus on reducing the prevalence of vision problems in hard-to-reach populations of young children.

Joann Petrini, PhD, MPH, has joined NICHQ’s executive team as the Chief Science Officer. In this role she provides leadership and guidance on NICHQ's content and evaluation strategy, oversight of all contracts and grant-funded projects, and standardization of research protocols and metrics across NICHQ's programs.