AMCHP's Effective Practices

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 CriteriaCutting-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.
  

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!