Insights

Each month, we’re shining a spotlight on a NICHQ employee, asking them to share their memories, advice, and goals. This month, Madeline D'Onfro, MPH, a project manager on the Hemoglobinopathies National Coordinating Center (HNCC) project shares her passion for creating systems that protect vulnerable members of society. And improving experiences for those with the highest needs.

Whether transitioning to college or a full-time job, it's a time when young adults are going to be establishing their independence from their nuclear family and taking responsibility for their own needs. For a young person with special healthcare needs such as SCD, the responsibilities are compounded by the additional need to begin transitioning from pediatric to adult care. Read more for four helpful strategies for transitioning from pediatric to adult care for people living with sickle cell disease and other special health conditions. 

 Our main story this episode highlights the need for resources for people living with sickle cell disease and strategies for transitioning from pediatric to adult care. We also reflect on National Infant Mortality Awareness Month and hear from NICHQ team member about connecting their personal and professional passion for equity. Thanks for joining us!

Each month, we’re shining a spotlight on a NICHQ employee, asking them to share their memories, advice, and goals. Here, Project Specialist Danisha Charles, MPH shares her passion for children's health and advocating for those with inadequate resources due to systemic inequity.

For our main story in this episode we are joined by Summer 2023 NICHQ Communications & Digital Strategy interns Amalia Hirschhorn-Martinez and Katie McCormick. They speak with members of the NICHQ team about our upcoming webinar focused on infant safe sleep and breastfeeding messaging and NICHQ’s continued work to ensure health professionals and the communities they serve are supported with the necessary tools and resources to create safe sleeping environments and improve breastfeeding and chestfeeding rates. 

Join NICHQ for an upcoming webinar “Their stories are so powerful”: Community-based approaches to infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion, on Aug. 23. from 2-3:30 PM EST.  The webinar will highlight findings from a recent NICHQ-led study titled “Community-Based Approaches to Infant Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding Promotion, a Qualitative Study,” published in BMC Public Health in March. 

Patient and family partnerships are an essential element of health equity. By supporting patient and family voices and encouraging space for collaboration, public health professionals can help ensure shared vision and values are at the forefront of determining solutions to improve a community’s health outcomes. 

NICHQ Analyst Rinka Murakami is committed to addressing disparities in maternal and child health, particularly racial disparities. As an Analyst in NICHQ's Department of Applied Research and Evaluation, Rinka is particularly passionate about working on various health initiatives focused on improving birth equity and respectful care. 

Patient and family partnerships are an essential element of health equity. By supporting patient and family voices and encouraging space for collaboration, public health professionals can help ensure shared vision and values are at the forefront of determining solutions to improve a community’s health outcomes.

Evidence demonstrates that fathers play a critical role in children’s health and development, beginning in the prenatal period and continuing through early childhood and adolescence. On this episode of Before Birth & Beyond, NICHQ honors Men's Health Month and Father's Day, both celebrated in June, by sitting down with two Black fatherhood experts to discuss the importance of including fathers in maternal and child health work, policy considerations to improve father engagement, and men's mental health and its impact on outcomes for children and families.

NICHQ Director of Communications and Digital Strategy Jey Weisgerber is committed to helping NICHQ achieve the mission that every child achieves their optimal health. They are particularly passionate about addressing inequities in maternal and child health and working to ensure MCH is more inclusive, not just for queer and gender-nonconforming folks who might give birth, but also for fathers and other partners who are parents or caregivers and for kids who are trans or intersex. 

The National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ) has incorporated AARs as a quality improvement tool for the past four years. Read a conversation with NICHQ Project Director Sandra Widland, MPH,  and Associate Project Director Eliza Williamson about the ways NICHQ utilizes AARs in various projects and its benefits to healthcare professionals and others interested in improving systems.