239005 Massachusetts Pilot: National Center For Children's Vision And Eye Health

Monday, October 31, 2011: 1:10 PM

Bruce Moore, OD , Department of Specialty and Advanced Care, New England College of Optometry, Boston, MA
Jean E. Ramsey, MD, MPH , Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Katherine Majzoub, RN, MBA , Prevent Blindness America, Boston, MA
Catherine A. Johnson, OD , Department of Specialty and Advanced Care, New England College of Optometry, Boston, MA
Stacy A. Lyons, OD , The New England College of Optometry, Boston, MA
Tom Miller , Educational Partnerships Program, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA
Rashmi Dayalu, MPH , Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program, MA Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
Paula Dobrow, RN, MSN , School Health Services, MA Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
Karin McClure, BS , Special Education Family Consultant, T.L. Connections, Inc, Woburn, MA
A Prevent Blindness America grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau has supported the establishment of the National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health and a National Expert Panel. The Center's focus is on three core elements: (1) To provide leadership in the development of best practices and guidelines for a public health infrastructure, and statewide strategies that ensure a continuum of vision care for children (2) To determine mechanisms for advancing state-based performance improvement systems, screening guidelines, and uniform data collection and reporting (3) To work in collaboration with Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Ohio to develop and implement a statewide strategy for vision care for young children, establish quality improvement strategies, and determine mechanisms for improving data systems and reporting of children's vision services.

This pilot provides an opportunity to reconvene the coalition responsible for Massachusetts' landmark 2004 legislative mandate for Preschool Vision Programs, expand membership, assess current practice and develop new programs and systems to support comprehensive vision care for children. Since May 2010, more than forty individuals from the fields of optometry, ophthalmology, pediatrics, family practice, nursing, education, government, and public health, as well as parents and advocates, have been contributing to the Massachusetts initiative as members of Specialty and Advisory Working Groups of the MA Pilot. The project is currently in a situation analysis phase and will be moving towards solution development and rollout of new systems, pilots and programs during the next 18 months.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Describe the rational for the development of a the collaborative mentioned int he presentation. List the objectives of the universal statewide system of comprehensive vision care for children.

Keywords: Vision Care, Health Needs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the co-PI of the project and am the chair of the academic department at the New England College of Optometry which houses the project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.