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>> Well the MCHEP program is really near
and dear to my heart.
When I think about MCHEP, I think about data that's used
to help women, infants and families at the state level.
And I think it's a really important contribution
that the MCHEP program makes to helping people in the states.
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>>Using data to improve the lives of women and children,
the focus has never been about research just
for the sake of research.
>> My experience working in the Georgia health department
between 1989 and 1996, during which time I worked closely
with Dr. Ginger Floyd, who was head of the Maternal
and Child Health Program.
I was in epidemiology.
She was MCH, but she's the one to whom I provided data,
and she's the one who always had a test question.
How will your data help Mrs. Jones?
And her concern was whether
or not the data could be used either to improve policy
or improve programs for women and children
in the state of Georgia.
>> Being an MCHEP assignee, to me,
is almost like being an epidemiologist at the bedside.
You have an opportunity to work directly
with state health departments, with the staff,
as well as with the families
that are affected by certain programs.
>> I joined the program as an assignee in the state.
I was there for four years, and then I joined the team
at headquarters to gain some experience in Atlanta,
and to influence the program at a national level.
>> In that transition between being a Louisiana assignee,
Katrina hitting New Orleans, and Slidell where I used to live
and going back to Atlanta as the MCH program team leader,
>> I was working in the state of Massachusetts
on perinatal regionalization.
We had to organize 68 hospitals within the state
to come together to make some consensus
about the most appropriate ways for babies
to be cared for in the state.
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>> By improving our understanding of how health
and disease develops over the life course.
By explaining why some mothers and children are healthy
and others are sick, by telling us what's working
and what's not, and by constantly reminding us the gap
between what is and what can be.
>> Setting up ongoing resources in the state
to continue doing work after I left.
It's one of the things I'm proudest of.
>> There's a veritable army of people who are looking
out for the interests of the health of mothers, infants,
and children in the United States.
>> And the investment when you improve mothers'
and children's health is enormous.
There's no other time in life when we can have such an impact
by addressing pregnant moms and moms with children
through health programs.
>> It's more than just epidemiology.
It's more than just numbers and analysis.
It affects women, infants and children.
It affects the programs that are developed.
It affects the policies that are put in place in states
and in tribes and territories and localities.
It affects how women, infants
and children receive care, how they access care.
It affects how these programs are developed for them.
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>> It is very crucial that this program continues
to do what it has done for twenty-five years.
>> I think we also have an opportunity to now integrate
in the area of chronic disease as well as other areas
so that we're not just looking at areas around pregnancy
and childbirth, but the health of women before,
during and after pregnancy as well as the health of families
in the level of the community.
>> I think partnership is more important than ever.
>> When we think about the work that we do in federal agencies.
The more opportunities that we have to do things together,
I think really strengthens it, and the MCHB
and CDC collaboration in maternal
and child epidemiology I think has been a shining example
of federal collaboration.
And it's really exciting to see, and together we've been able
to work with states as well as tribes and territories
to really strengthen the work of improving the health
of women, infants and children.
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