III.E.2.b.iii MCH Data Capacity

III.E.2.b.iii.a MCH Epidemiology Workforce

OHA MCAH Epidemiology Workforce

The Maternal and Child Health Section is supported by an Assessment, Evaluation, and Informatics (AE&I) Unit. The AE&I Unit consists of an Assessment, Evaluation, and Informatics Manager, the state MCH Epidemiologist, 8 research analysts, including the Lead Research Analyst who also serves as the Title V Research Analyst, 5 informaticists, and other program staff. The Public Health Division has strong connections with local academic institutions including the public health faculties of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), Portland State University and Oregon State University. Many doctoral level staff members at the Public Health Division have appointments at these universities. The Maternal and Child Health Section is currently hosting a second year CDC/CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellow and plans to apply to serve as a host billet site for future fellows.

Currently, Dr. John Putz serves as the Assessment, Evaluation, and Informatics Manager. In this capacity he provides management-level oversight of epidemiological and scientific work. Dr. Putz serves on the Science and Epidemiology Council of the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Division. He served as the State of Oregon’s COVID-19 Operations Chief, Deputy Operations Chief, and Health Intelligence Chief, and Active Surveillance Director during the first six months of the pandemic response. Dr. Putz earned his B.S. (Honors and Cum Laude) in Psychology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from The University of Arizona, M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University, and Ph.D. in Public Health (Health Behavior) from Indiana University. Dr. Putz has significant experience in epidemiological work in non-profit, academic, local government, and state government sectors. He led the Indiana Research and Evaluation Office of Centerstone, the nation’s largest provider of non-profit community-based mental healthcare services from 2010-2016. In that capacity Dr. Putz directed the evaluation, research, analytic, and surveillance components of federally funded mental health and infectious disease programs. This work included the establishment of a HCV screening, referral, and education program amongst persons living with serious mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder) and co-morbid addiction issues. Dr. Putz served as the national chair of Centerstone’s clinical research advisory board and led the agency’s national clinical research program (serving as Principal Investigator on government and industry funded clinical trials). Following his work at Centerstone, Dr. Putz served as Clinical Research Manager (2016-2018) at the Indianapolis city-county public hospital/primary care system (Eskenazi Health). In this role Dr. Putz chaired the agency’s research committee and served as Research Integrity Officer for the agency.

Dr. Suzanne Zane currently serves as Oregon’s State MCH Epidemiologist. Dr. Zane has been an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1997, beginning with training in CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service from 1997-1999 with the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine. She has been a scientist in the Division of Reproductive Health since that time, first as a maternal health epidemiologist, and for the past decade as a senior MCH epidemiologist assigned to non-CDC agencies to build epidemiologic capacity (2 years at the Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center, serving the Federally-recognized Tribes of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and 8 years at the Oregon Health Authority). She provides epidemiologic and scientific planning and oversight for Oregon Public Health Division’s Maternal and Child Health Section surveillance and research analyses, which also include all oral health activities, and has a key scientific role in the Oregon PRAMS and Early Childhood Health in Oregon (ECHO) surveys and the Birth Anomalies Surveillance System, provides epidemiologic consultation to other state public health programs, and is the clinical epidemiologic interface between the MCH Section and external partners such as the pediatric cardiology department at Oregon Health and Science University and Oregon Child Protective Services/Child Welfare. Dr. Zane earned her MPH from the University of South Florida and her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University.

The Lead Research Analyst for the Oregon Maternal and Child Health Section also fulfills the role of Title V Research Analyst for the state. This position is currently filled by Maria Ness. Prior to this position, she served as the Program Evaluation and Surveillance Manager at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Division of Maternal, Child and Family Health. Ms. Ness is a graduate of the two-year CDC/CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship, which she completed at the Oregon Health Authority’s Maternal and Child Health Section. Ms. Ness holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Sydney. Ms. Ness is a prior recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Award for Outstanding Epidemiology Practice in Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities. In her role as Lead Research Analyst, Ms. Ness sits on multiple state level advisory boards, such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Advisory Committee, and the Student Health Survey Advisory Committee. Ms. Ness also provides epidemiologic consultation for the Policy Team and the Nurse Team within the Maternal and Child Health Section.

OCCYSHN Epidemiology workforce

OCCYSHN’s Assessment & Evaluation (A&E) team is responsible for designing and executing studies that track the needs of Oregon CYSHCN and their families and meet the data and analysis needs of OCCYSHN staff. Currently five staff compose the A&E team:

• Alison Martin, PhD, MA, Manager. Dr. Martin began working with OCCYSHN in April 2014. Title V CYSHCN funding supports her at 0.88 FTE. (The University Center for Excellence in Development Disabilities, the Oregon Health & Science University – Portland State University School of Public Health, and HERO Kids Innovation grant support her remaining 0.12 FTE.)
• Sheryl Gallarde-Kim, MSc, Program Evaluation Research Associate. Ms. Gallarde-Kim began working with OCCYSHN in December 2012. Title V CYSHCN and HERO Kids Innovation grant funding support her at 1.0 FTE.
• Olivia J. Lindly, PhD, MPH, Senior Research Associate. Dr. Lindly works with OCCYSHN A&E on tasks that include research design, analysis planning, and manuscript preparation. She began collaborating with OCCYSHN in 2016. Title V CYSHCN funding supports her at 0.10 FTE on an as-needed basis.
• Lindsey Patterson, PhD, MS, Senior Program Evaluation Research Associate. Dr. Patterson began working with OCCYSHN in October 2021. Title V CYSHCN funding supports her at 0.50 FTE.
• Raúl Vega-Juárez, Program Evaluation Research Assistant 2. Mr. Vega began working with OCCYSHN in January 2020. Title V CYSHCN and CMC CoIIN funding support him at 1.0 FTE.
   

Dr. Martin has 21 years of experience working in applied research and program evaluation settings, ten of which have been with MCAH and OCCYSHN. Dr. Martin developed Drs. Patterson Mr. Vega’s positions to expand OCCYSHN’s assessment and evaluation capacity. Dr. Patterson, our most recent addition, brings additional senior-level program evaluation design, implementation, and management experience, in addition to advanced statistical and qualitative analysis expertise. We have capitalized on the experience and skill sets of each staff member, while also creating additional space to develop new and existing skills and knowledge.

Limited data exist to describe Oregon CYSHCN and their families. OCCYSHN routinely uses the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative’s Data Resource Center-prepared data tables. When our research questions demand more complex analyses, we conduct them. We also use state-specific secondary data to describe subpopulations of CYSHCN. For example, we had financial resources to support a collaboration with Neal Wallace, PhD, to apply the Pediatric Medical Complexity Algorithm (Simon et al., 2014) to All Payers All Claims 2010-2014 data. These analyses allowed us to describe the percentage of Oregon children ages 21 years and younger with complex chronic disease, with their health care costs and utilization. We compared costs and utilization for those served in Oregon’s patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) with those not served in a PCMH. Our needs assessment report also uses results from Oregon National Core Indicators and Oregon Healthy Teens surveys.

OCCYSHN conducts quantitative and qualitative primary data collections when additional data are needed. Examples of the former are the family and youth surveys for our 2015 needs assessment. Examples of the latter are the participatory needs assessment studies we conducted with the Latino Community Association and the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation of Oregon. (See 2020 needs assessment chapters 3 and 4.) OCCYSHN’s Assessment and Evaluation team is building expertise in conducting participatory research.

The A&E unit also evaluates Title V block grant activities. The staff has the expertise, knowledge, and skills needed to determine appropriate evaluation approaches, develop program evaluation plans and logic models, develop, and implement data collection methods and procedures, develop and implement quantitative and qualitative analytic plans, and disseminate findings. Additionally, the A&E unit monitors program implementation. For example, every month they compute data describing the implementation of OCCYSHN’s shared care planning strategy. These results allow the Systems & Workforce Development unit to monitor LPHA progress on shared care planning requirements. In all its work, OCCYSHN’s A&E unit collaborates with OCCYSHN Systems & Workforce Development unit and Family Involvement Program. The A&E unit responds to program needs for data and analysis that advance OCCYSHN’s ability to serve CYSCHN.