About the Program
What is the Alaska MCH Indicator Surveillance Project?
The MCH Indicator Surveillance Project collects, analyzes and
summarizes statistical and epidemiological information on indicators
regarding maternal and child health in the state of Alaska.
The data is gathered from local, state and federal agencies,
including existing surveillance projects within the MCH Epidemiology
Unit. The MCH Epidemiology Unit is within Women's, Children's and Family Health:
Division of Public Health, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.
What is the purpose of Alaska MCH-ISP?
The primary purpose of the MCH Indicator Surveillance Project
is to assess and monitor the overall maternal and child health
status of Alaska by bringing together data from a multitude
of local, state and federal sources and then analyzing the data
using various tools, such as trend analysis and descriptive
epidemiology.
MCH-ISP also serves as a resource for programs needing MCH
data for project planning and evaluation, grant applications
and needs assessments.
What are the goals and objectives of Alaska MCH-ISP?
Provide data on national and state specific MCH indicators
as needed to promote and improve the health and well-being of
mothers and children in Alaska.
Create comprehensive publications for the community regarding
the status of maternal and child health in Alaska such as the
Dataline and MCH Facts.
Annually publish the Data Book, a resource guide that will
provide an overall picture of maternal and child health in the
state of Alaska. The Data Book will be used as a comprehensive
reference of MCH Indicators for local, state and federal agencies,
as well as the community.
Create and maintain MCH QuickFacts, a website dedicated to
data tables of leading indicators of maternal and child health
in Alaska.
Who are the partners in Alaska MCH-ISP?
What information does Alaska MCH-ISP collect?
All states are federally required to collect national indicators
on the health of mothers and children in their respective states
to provide the Maternal and Child
Health Bureau (MCHB) an overall
picture regarding the health of the nation. The Alaska MCH Indicators
Surveillance Project collects information on the health of mothers
and children in Alaska. The data come from the efforts of the
MCH Epidemiology surveillance projects, such as PRAMS, MIMR,
ABDR and FASSP, as well as many other local, state and federal
agencies.
How are data collected?
MCH-ISP sends out formal data requests to individual partners
to meet data needs for many projects including new analyses,
updating grants, program planning and needs assessments.
How can data from MCH-ISP be used?
Data from MCH-ISP can be used to define appropriate indicators for
program planning and evaluation, track MCH indicators over time,
identify areas of need and update grant applications.
The community can use data from MCH-ISP that is published
in Datalines, MCH
Fact Sheets and the MCH Databook.
The MCH Databook is a comprehensive resource guide that provides an overall
picture of maternal and child health in the state of Alaska.