Infant mortality remains a serious issue in the Rochester area, with 4.5 deaths per one thousand live births.
But it's over three times higher for African Americans, at 14.2 and it's 11.7 deaths per 1-thousand live births for Latinos.
Under unanimous bipartisan support of the Monroe County Legislature, the County has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Perinatal Network, which will allow for an in depth study of the data behind infant mortality.
Perinatal Network Executive Director Patricia Brantingham says the MOU will allow the health department and the network to work together to create a data analysis model to study infant mortality.
The goal is to use the data from the study to assist the health department target prevention efforts more effectively.
Here's video of Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks and Perinatal Network Executive Director, Patricia Brantingham, signing that Memorandum of Understanding to establish a partnership to study infant mortality:
http://youtu.be/upB_B25tz4w