Special Projects of Regional and National Significance

Objectives: The Special Projects of Regional and National Significance Program (SPRANS) carries out maternal and child health (MCH) projects to support training and research; oral health integration; genetic disease testing, counseling, and information development and dissemination programs; newborn screening for sickle cell anemia and other genetic disorders; and comprehensive hemophilia diagnostic and treatment centers. The Supporting Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Screening and Intervention helps reduce alcohol use during pregnancy and improves outcomes for children with FASD nationwide, especially in communities where there is a high rate of binge drinking during pregnancy, including rural areas and medically underserved communities. The program focuses on educating primary care providers and increasing the use of screening, intervention, and referral processes for high-risk pregnancies. The State Maternal Health Innovation program creates state-led maternal health task forces to bring together the voices of key leaders, and pregnant and postpartum individuals using state-specific maternal health data to develop and implement innovative approaches to address the most pressing maternal health needs and disparities. State approaches include strengthening partnerships and collaborations, improving state-level data surveillance on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, and promoting and executing innovation in maternal health service delivery. The MCH Research Portfolio includes the MCH Research Consortium, Maternal Health Research Collaborative for Minority-Serving Institutions, MCH Research Network, and MCH Field-Initiated Innovative Research Studies programs. The research portfolio advances maternal and child health by generating and testing innovative, real-world approaches to improve population-level outcomes. The program addresses critical evidence gaps through the development of research infrastructure and the conduct of rigorous, community-engaged research in close partnership with families and other stakeholders. MCH RNs focus on collaborative, interdisciplinary. The Children’s Safety Network (CSN) purpose is to increase the capacity of Title V agencies to adopt and implement evidence-based child and adolescent safety programs, practices, and policies, with a specific focus on injury and violence-related to Title V performance and outcome measures, such as injury hospitalizations, bullying, safe sleep, and suicide, as well as leading causes of injury-related deaths among children and adolescents (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, firearms, and poisonings).