June 2019

The Portal Periodical brings you updates on changes and additions to the Portal and relevant news & information. As always, we welcome Feedback.

The Services Directory and Service Providers are an important part of the Portal for many users.

In fact, over a third of Portal visits start somewhere in the Services Directory! The Portal team, in collaboration with our state partners, is constantly working to improve your experience with Services. This includes updating and adding Service Providers; managing the Service Categories that are used to organize the Services Directory and link to Service Providers from Portal pages; and improving Services Directory navigation.

Recent improvements include:

• Expanding our Nationwide Services Directory and displaying these Service Providers in some state's Services Directories.
• Improving services search to help you find additional results based on Service Categories.
• Improving our Service Categories -- we've recently changed some category names and we're currently gathering expert input to guide improvements in our Mental Health/Counseling categories.

Meet Al Romeo, RN, PhD! Al is a Consultant for the Medical Home Portal. He's been part of the Portal team since 2005. He's worked as an author on a number of Portal pages, including, most recently, our Maternal Lead Exposure and Childhood Lead Exposure pages. Al is also a teratology information specialist with the MotherToBaby Utah program, which recently celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary: MotherToBaby Utah 35th Anniversary. He was also a guest on the June 14 episode of Utah podcast Baby Your Baby where he spoke about taking medication during pregnancy: Baby Your Baby: Taking Medications During Pregnancy Podcast (KUTV 2News).

The Medical Home Portal needs your help to find parents of children and youth with special health care needs who can help us improve their experience when they visit our website to find information and services. No prior exposure to or use of the Medical Home Portal required. If you work with or are the parent of a CYSHCN who might be willing to spend 20-30 minutes for a brief interview and an online sorting activity, please reach out to Geoff Anderson (geoff.anderson@utah.edu) or Dan Gillen (dan.gillen@utah.edu) at the University of Utah. Participants will be given a $25 Amazon gift card for their assistance. Remote interview options available.