The MCH Epidemiology Unit (MCH EPI) is organizationally located within DPHs Division of Epidemiology. MCH EPI performs ongoing surveillance, data collection, and analysis for several Title V funded programs within DPH. J. Michael Bryan, MPH, PhD, is the Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Unit Director and serves as Chief Epidemiologist providing scientific oversight and coordination of maternal and child health epidemiology activities in support of programs relevant to Title V. MCH EPI is comprised of three Units: Newborn Surveillance, Perinatal Surveillance, and Health Surveys. These three units cover a variety of health topics, including infant morbidity and mortality, maternal morbidity and mortality, child health, newborn screening, birth defects, congenital exposure to infectious diseases, oral health, and more general maternal and infant health surveillance via the implementation of PRAMS. Critical to the work of these three teams is Rochelle Minter (Administrative Assistant II, CDC Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) funded), who serves as the overarching administrative assistant for MCH EPI, with a focus on meeting the needs of the Newborn Surveillance Team (NST) that emerged from Zika surveillance efforts.

During the early stage of its development, the NST focused on longitudinal surveillance of infants with in utero exposure to Zika, infants with Zika-associated birth defects, and women with Zika during their pregnancy. The NST team is led by Jerusha Barton, MPH (Science Officer & Epidemiologist III, funded by MCH state funds). Jerusha Barton has been with DPH in an expanding capacity for nearly seven years and is the subject matter expert on birth defects and congenital infection surveillance at DPH. Jerusha Barton won a best poster award for her work on validating Zika-associated birth defects surveillance at the annual Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) conference. Dr. Ankit Sutaria, MBBS, MPH (Newborn Screening Epidemiologist- Epidemiologist III, funded by MCHP state funds) also has increasing responsibilities as an epidemiologist within NST. Currently, Dr. Sutaria serves as an epidemiologist focused on critical congenital heart disease, sickle cell disease and related hemoglobinopathies, and newborn screening conditions of interest (e.g., genetic, and metabolic disorders). Teri’ Willabus, MPH (Congenital Infections Epidemiologist II, CDC ELC funded) initially worked as the Zika Pregnancy Registry (ZPR) epidemiologist, and currently serves as the field coordinator for the Congenital Infections Registry (CIR), a state-specific effort paralleling CDC’s Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies Network (SET-NET), which grew from the United States Zika Pregnancy and Infant Registry. Cyndi Carpentieri, RN, MPH (Public Health Nurse & Medical Record Abstractor, funded through CDC’s Local Health District Initiative) assists Teri’ Willabus with the abstraction of medical records pertinent to the CIR. Petriona Seabrook assists the NST with medical record requests and organization. Two technical developers– Michael Andrews and Nehali Shah– have largely been and continue to be the individuals primarily responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of the CIR.

The Perinatal Epidemiology Team (PET) focuses on health before, during, and shortly after the pregnancy period. Tonia Ruddock, MPH (Supervisory Epidemiologist, Title V funded), leads most of the Title V analyses of vital records (e.g., birth certificates, death certificates, fetal death certificates, induced terminations of pregnancy). DPHs perinatal quality collaborative, GaPQC, funds an epidemiologist to perform analysis on measures of import. Victoria Sanon, MPH (Epidemiologist I) fulfills GaPQCs analytic needs, including the monitoring of facility-specific progress on AIM bundle-specific outcome, structure, and process measures of participating facilities, as demonstrated through the production of quarterly facility-specific reports leveraging quarterly hospital discharge data received and processed within MCH EPI. Sarah Powell, MPH (Epidemiologist II, funded with Maternal Mortality state funds) has taken on more responsibilities over the past two years. As the Maternal Mortality Epidemiologist, Sarah Powell performs a breadth of tasks to ensure the rigor of data stemming from Georgia’s MMRC, including the validation of the pregnancy checkbox on Georgia’s death certificates, maintaining the list of cases, monitoring data collection and entry, development of products to disseminate (e.g., fact sheets and reports), and performing all maternal mortality analyses. Georgia’s Family Planning program (FP) supports an epidemiologist- Brianna Walker, MPH (Epidemiologist I, Title X funded). Brianna Walker supports ongoing analyses of FP encounters and overall preconception health and wellness.

MCH EPIs third team, the Health Surveys Team (HST), is primarily responsible for the implementation, analysis, and dissemination of survey data: PRAMS and BSS. The HST focuses on the collection of valid data using rigorous protocols. Jenna Self, MPH (Epidemiologist III, Project Director) serves as the Team Lead for HST. Nora Self, MPH (Epidemiologist II, PRAMS Data Coordinator) serves as the primary epidemiologist for PRAMS and assists in project implementation and evaluation activities. The person with primary responsibility over the daily implementation activities of PRAMS is Jamey Wagnon (Data Manager, Administrative Assistant II, Title V funded). Several positions assist in the ongoing data collection process, mostly consisting of performing interviews to sampled mothers. These are summarized below:

• Delicia Idlett (Part-time Bilingual Interviewer, Professional Healthcare Worker PRAMS base award funded)
• Vacant (Part-time Interviewer, Professional Healthcare Worker, funded with State Maternal Mental Health funds)
• Tianni Spence (Contractor, Part-time Interviewer, PRAMS supplement funded)

Sabrina Johnston, MPH (Survey Analytics Epidemiologist II, CDC’s Oral Health grant funded) assists with analysis and management of survey data. Primarily focused on oral health, the Survey Analytics Epidemiologist II is responsible for disseminating relevant oral health data to internal and external stakeholders, including the development of a comprehensive oral health burden report and survey-specific reports (e.g., Third Grade Basis Screening Survey), and implementing surveys pursuant to grant deliverables- namely, the Third Grade Basic Screening Survey at least once during the five-year grant cycle.

MCH EPI staff engage in professional development opportunities through a variety of avenues that include the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). During these national conferences, there is targeted skills building training and peer to peer sharing, as well as opportunities to present on analyses done throughout the year through oral or poster presentations. In the past year, MCH EPI staff have participated in multiple training opportunities, including those focused on data visualization, grant writing, health equity, and Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) Aeronautical Reconnaissance Coverage Geographic Information System (ArcGIS). To stay abreast of the latest research in MCH, MCH EPI engaged in monthly virtual book clubs. Moving forward, MCH EPI will put great emphasis on ongoing transition into an enterprise environment that permits greater use of data on the Esri ArcGIS platform and suite of products.