As a result of discussions at the 2007 MCH EPI Conference, CSTE, the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), and CityMatCH formed the MCH Epi Group, whose mission is to promote the use of data to guide public health practice and improve maternal and child health. The group works to accomplish its mission by supporting the use of effective public health surveillance and epidemiologic practice through training, capacity development, and peer consultation; developing standards for practice; and advocating for resources and scientifically based policy. For more information about the MCH Epi group, please visit www.MCHepi.org.

Previous assessments of maternal and child health epidemiology have resulted in many recommendations, including the need to identify best practices for the field, the importance of advanced training for MCH epidemiologists, the need for MCH staff to have ready access to a variety of databases including those that are linked, and the necessity of a visible MCH epidemiology presence. CSTE released Maternal & Child Health Epidemiology Capacity: Findings and Recommendations in 2010, which reports findings from the maternal and child health module of the 2009 National Assessment of Epidemiology Capacity and provides recommendations for improving capacity.