KU School of Medicine-Wichita

21 "What we find is that throughout the state we have individuals working in silos, working with limited resources and having limited reach in what they're doing," said Cari Schmidt, the center's director as well as director of research and associate research professor in the Department of Pediatrics. "So the idea for the center was to connect with others who have similar interests and build projects that will have a greater impact on the infant mortality rate in Kansas, and possibly beyond." More than two dozen individuals and groups, including the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians, March of Dimes and a KDHE official, wrote letters supporting the center's creation. "The intention is for it to be a statewide center, so while we're housed in Wichita we will collaborate and work with people at the Kansas City and Lawrence campuses, as well as across the state with nonprofits and community organizations," Schmidt said. The center began getting up and running during the summer of 2017, and has since put together a board of directors and begun to seek grant funding. Stephanie Kuhlmann, D.O., pediatrics hospitalist and assistant So much more than promoting safe sleep professor in the Department of Pediat- rics, has been named CRIBS' director of implementation. During 2016, the latest year for which data is available, Kansas' overall infant mortality rate was 5.9 per 1,000 live births, the same as in 2015 when it was the lowest ever. That is below the national average of 6.0, but disparities between ethnnic groups remain in Kansas and the nation. The infant mortality rate among white infants in the state was 5.2 per 1,000, up from 4.7 in 2015, while the rate for black infants had a more sizable increase, to 15.2 deaths per 1,000, up from 10.4 the year before. The center came out of work Schmidt, Kuhlmann and others have done through the Sedgwick County-based Maternal Infant Health Coalition and the Safe Sleep Task Force. Both the coalition and task force are collaborative efforts supported by the medical school and the Medical Society of Sedgwick County. They involve physicians, researchers, public health workers, nonprofits and others focusing on maternal and infant health matters. The Kansas Infant Death & SIDS Network — KIDS — and executive director Christy Schunn are involved in both the coalition and task force. For about a half-dozen years, KUSM-W's Department of Pediatrics has sponsored one of the KIDS Network's main fundraisers, the annual Haley's SIDS Scramble golf tournament in August. Last year, the KIDS Network donated a portion of the proceeds, $1,925, to the center. CRIBS also has formed its board. Members include Schunn; Pam Shaw, M.D., pediatrics professor at KU's Kansas City campus; Zachary Kuhlmann, D.O., director of the OB-GYN residency program at KU School of Medicine-Wichita; Vicki Collie-Akers, associate director of health promotion research at the Center for Community Health and Development on the Lawrence campus; and

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