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Center for Child Health Policy and Advocacy

The Center for Child Health Policy and Advocacy serves as a catalyst to impact legislative and regulatory action on the behalf of vulnerable children at local, state, and national levels. We strive to deliver innovative, multi-disciplinary, and solutions-oriented approaches to child health.

Our Mission

The mission of the Center for Child Health Policy and Advocacy at Texas Children’s Hospital is to advance policy and advocacy strategies to impact legislative and regulatory action on the behalf of vulnerable children in the areas of patient care, education, and research. The vision of the Center is to transform child health such that underserved children have every opportunity to lead healthy, high quality, productive lives. The Center is located within Texas Children’s Hospital, one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the country. 

As a Center, we strive to deliver innovative, multi-disciplinary, and solutions-oriented approaches to child health in a vastly evolving health care system and market place. For decades, the medical literature has documented the vulnerability of children with respect to poverty, access to health care, clinical outcomes, and health care financing. Lack of an integrated effort has led to persistent inequities among children, poor health outcomes, and inefficient use of resources.

Despite the increasing vulnerabilities in child health, the individual responses from the government, health care industry, public health, and community organizations have often been sporadic, fragmented, and inadequately coordinated. Recognizing these issues and the importance of addressing them through a more coordinated approach, the Center places high value on cross-sector collaborations. The Center provides a centralized and collaborative resource for trainees and faculty to systematically study the implications of child health policy and advocacy on the advancements of patient care, education, and research. With an academically rigorous and scholarly approach, this Center serves as a catalyst to impact legislative and regulatory action on the behalf of vulnerable children at local, state, and national levels. 

We have seven faculty members and three staff who have demonstrated expertise in medicine, law, health economics, public policy, sociology, health services research, biostatistics, and advocacy. Our projects encompass early childhood development, childhood obesity, health disparities, behavioral health, telehealth, social determinants of health, and children with special health care needs.   

CONFERENCE: Policy to Practice: The Future of Social Determinants of Health Screening and Interventions