Maternal Child Health Grant Marks Milestone for UAB

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has been awarded a five-year, $1.6 million grant to provide healthcare professionals with leadership education training in adolescent health.

Posted on December 5, 2002 at 10:13 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has been awarded a five-year, $1.6 million grant to provide healthcare professionals with leadership education training in adolescent health. The award makes UAB the only institution in the nation to currently hold all four major types of interdisciplinary long-term training grants awarded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration. MCHB representatives are here this week visiting with UAB faculty about agency-supported training programs.

“Overall, grant programs are aimed at improving the health of women and children by training leaders in the field of maternal and child health professionals,” said Nancy Wooldridge, assistant professor of pediatrics and co-director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Center at UAB. “Although each training program focuses on a specific area of maternal and child heath, all bring together teams of faculty representing various healthcare disciplines to provide comprehensive graduate-level training.”

UAB faculty members have established the UAB Maternal and Child Health Collaborative Network to coordinate efforts and to take advantage of shared resources. “UAB fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, making it an ideal setting for a network like this one,” said Wooldridge. “By working together, we are able to extend our resources and tailor programs to better meet the needs and interests of trainees.”

 

Following are brief descriptions of the four MCHB-funded long-term interdisciplinary training programs under way at UAB:

  • Leadership Education in Adolescent Health. Prepares professionals from a variety of health care disciplines to be leaders in clinical care, research, public health policy and advocacy in adolescent medicine. Project director: Dr. Ronald Feinstein, professor of pediatrics.

  • Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. Trains future leaders in a variety of disciplines to improve the health of children who have or who are at risk of developing neurodevelopmental disabilities or other similar conditions, such as autism and mental retardation. Project director: Dr. Alan Percy, professor of pediatrics.

  • Pediatric Pulmonary Centers. Prepares health professionals to develop or improve community-based, family-centered health care for children with chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma. Project director: Dr. Raymond Lyrene, professor of pediatrics.

  • Schools of Public Health. Prepares graduate students for local, state and national-level careers in maternal and child public health practice, research, program planning, policy development and advocacy with emphasis on multidisciplinary leadership and practice training, and applied research and analysis skills. Project director: Greg R. Alexander, Sc.D., professor and chair of maternal and child health, School of Public Health.

MCHB recently added a fifth, more specialized category of long-term interdisciplinary grant, called Maternal Child Health Public Health, aimed at addressing the special educational needs of public health professionals living in geographically isolated communities. Currently, only two institutions hold grants of this type.

Long-term interdisciplinary training programs support MCHB’s overall goal to assure quality healthcare services for mothers, children and adolescents by providing for the development of highly skilled and competent maternal and child health professionals. All together, MCHB funds 16 categories of short- and long-term disciplinary and interdisciplinary training programs.