For the school year 2007-2008, Envision NM, the Office of School and Adolescent Health (OSAH), and the Human Services Department, School Health Office are working together to bring quality improvement to SBHCs. There are four ongoing Initiatives, also called “Pods”. More...

Childhood Overweight Medical Management Telehealth Consultation (COMM-TC) links pediatric specialists from UNM (from up to eight different disciplines) with rural, primary health care providers to provide instruction regarding the care of overweight children and their co-morbid conditions. More information...

The Developmental Screening Initiative New Mexico (DSI) is a community-based, systems oriented, evidence-directed quality improvement initiative working with health care providers and other professionals statewide to promote highest standard of practice in developmental screening. The long range goal of DSI is to ensure that no child reaches school with an undetected developmental condition. Participants in DSI receive education, training, and on-going technical support to promote routine use of standardized developmental screening tools. DSI is approved by the American Board of Pediatrics as an official Quality Improvement Project. Participating pediatricians will, upon completion, have fulfilled their quality improvement project requirement for Maintenance of Certification in pediatrics effective in 2010.More information HERE.

Quality Improvement is an organized way to make changes in the practice of health care. Quality Improvement explains how to make changes by helping you plan:

• What changes you want to make
• How to make the changes
• How to tell if the changes are an improvement, and
• How to make improvement changes last

This component of our program is key to our success. We provide training to pediatric care providers (community and school-based) in epidemiology and management of pediatric overweight, communication training (facilitating change) and the model of improvement/PDSA cycles. Our training also includes training in Motivational Interviewing.

The Community Outreach component of our program aims to support healthcare providers by sharing innovative ways to promote key healthy messages to children, teens and families in their clinics and communities as well as to give providers resources for waiting areas and clinic rooms. We hope to be able to connect providers to local advocacy groups such as the school district’s school wellness policy initiatives or other community wellness events and teach community providers about connecting community clinics and school-based health centers (SBHC). Further, we aim to assist in the promotion of healthy lifestyles by using a strengths-based approach regarding nutrition and physical activity. And finally, we strive to link providers and families with community resources (parks and recreation, walking trails, after-school programs and other free activities available to children, teens and families). The Community Outreach project will help develop connections between community and SBHC providers and key school personnel (administrators, physical education and health education teachers, cafeteria personnel, bus drivers, school boards, family members), map community resources (strengths and needs), promote Envision NM key messages, and promote culturally-appropriate healthy lifestyles.

The Childhood Overweight Medical Management Telehealth Consultation (COMM-TC) service offers primary care providers an opportunity to seek input on the evaluation and management of their overweight pediatric patients. Consultants available to lend their expertise include sub specialists from UNM Pediatric Endocrinology, Cardiology, Hepatology, Nephrology, Psychiatry, Psychology, Adolescent Medicine, and Nutrition.Click here for more information or contact Jane Epstein, PNP, at 505-247-3123 or jepstein@salud.unm.edu .

Envision has several research projects that are scientifically rigorous and provide important insight and information on all of our programmatic work. We anticipate several publications in national journals this year including one in the journal Pediatrics in the spring of 2009. We report on these activities as they relate to the work we do in collaboration with the Human Services Department and the Department of Health. Research projects are funded by the granting agencies listed here.

Robert Wood Johnson Grant - UNM Center for Health Policy

This project is titled "New Mexico School-Based Obesity Prevention Policies: A Study of Community Perceptions in Underserved Minority Populations".

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

In September 2007, principal investigator, Keri Bolton Oetzel; and co-investigator, Jane Epstein, were awarded funding from the AHRQ, US Department of Health & Human Services. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of on-going telehealth consultation on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of clinical providers in rural primary care centers in the treatment of pediatric overweight and related co-morbidities. As one of four research arms of this grant, the research team proposed to study the innovative Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Model. Using both state-of-the-art telehealth technology and case-based learning, ECHO has the potential to provide best practice care for complex health conditions to underserved priority populations, while also training primary care providers. Dr. Bolton Oetzel and Jane Epstein meet twice-monthly with the infrastructure team which offers the opportunity to discuss, refine, and strategize implementation efforts of the Pediatric Overweight arm of this grant, and is beginning collaboration with UNM CTSC Pediatric Research Nurses for efforts on AHRQ.