As part of its commitment to serve as a national resource for members and support efforts to build successful MCH programs, AMCHP collects, reviews and disseminates evidence-based practices from public health programs across the U.S. so effective models can be shared and replicated among the MCH community.
AMCHP's Practice Continuum
AMCHP shares a continuum of practices, programs, and policies that range from cutting-edge, emerging, and promising to best (i.e. those practices which have been extensively evaluated and proven effective). Each category on the continuum builds upon the previous one.
Practice Categories​ and Criteria
Cutting-Edge Practice
- Describes the need observed and how the practice addresses this need.
- Describes the intended benefit to the key MCH population achieved by the practice.
- Describes how the practice addresses health inequities and discrimination.
- Describes
who stakeholders are and why they were partnered with.
- Describes early signs of practice success.
Emerging Practice
- Describes any existing theories, research, standards/guidelines, models, programs etc. that were used to develop and/or implement the practice.
- Describes how the practice addresses at least one social determinants of health.
- Describes how stakeholders were involved throughout all practice processes and activities.
- Describes an evaluation plan appropriate for the scope of practice.
Describes a process for identifying lessons learned.
Promising Practice
- Describes relevant measures and methods for data collection and analysis. Presents evaluation data that demonstrate positive outcomes.
- Describes any potential biases in the evaluation of the practice, including those due to cultural or racial/ethnic differences.
- Describes how a continuous quality improvement process was implemented and any resulting changes made to the practice.
- Describes a process for identifying and assessing any unexpected or unintentional results.
Best Practice
- Provides evaluation data demonstrating that the practice addresses health inequities and discrimination at a systems level
- Describes key stakeholders, how they were involved in main practice processes and activities, and any structures that support their meaningful participation in the practice.
- Presents evaluation data that clearly link positive outcomes observed to the practice and not to outside factors.
- Describes how the practice has been replicated and produced similar results for different populations and/or settings.
- Provides examples of how the practice has been externally validated such as through a peer review process, external evaluation, or dissemination of a report or product.
How are Practices Selected for Inclusion in Innovation Station?
The Best Practices Committee, comprised of AMCHP
members, partners, and other public health experts, in addition to other MCH professionals review submissions to
determine if a practice meets the criteria for inclusion in Innovation Station
and if so, where it falls on the practice continuum.
To search AMCHP's current practices, visit the practice database!