Dr. Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. by phil_cauthon

The members of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Infant Mortality today had the ear of the state's top health official, and they used the occasion to probe for ways they could secure state or federal funding for their efforts.

Panel members told Dr. Robert Moser — secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment — that the group's first three years of work were limited by the lack of a budget.

"I'm not sure we've really set priorities beyond things we could do for free, to be blunt," said Steve Fawcett of the University of Kansas Work Group on Community Health and Development. "We haven't been able to scale up with evidence-based approaches that make a difference. We have a puny set of resources to put towards this huge issue that's at hand."

The Kansas death rate for black infants is the worst in the nation, according to the National Center for Vital Statistics. And the state's death rate for all babies — 6.3 per 1,000 — is higher than the national average of 5.6.

Moser said comments by legislators in recent budget committee meetings have echoed the panel members' frustrations.

"They don't like the fact that Kansas is No. 1 in infant mortality. They recognize that — yes, it may be an indicator of our quality of health care and health care access — but just complaining about it and saying how bad that is, it doesn't necessarily address it," Moser said.

But he also said, "Before we ask for (funds) we need to make sure we have the system in place so we can demonstrate how efficient we can be."

The panel formed in 2009 drawing on 16 volunteers from state, local and private organizations who have a broad range of expertise in maternal child health. Its work has largely been limited to general public awareness campaigns and coordination with existing groups like the March of Dimes. Panel members have long hoped to deploy programs to identify and address the causes of infant mortality at a zip-code level, but have lacked funds.

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