Newborn screening programs are a vital public health resource that enables millions of infants to benefit from early detection and intervention of genetic, endocrine, metabolic, hearing, and critical congenital heart conditions.
However, in many jurisdictions across the country, newborn screening data can be fragmented, siloed and subject to different screening procedures, methods, turnaround times, and use different approaches for interpreting results.
HRSA https:/www. /hrsa.gov has selected Altarum https://altarum.org a nonprofit organization working with public and private insurers, provider organizations, and foundations to improve the health of vulnerable and publicly insured populations. HRSA announced that Altarum will be the leader for innovations at the Newborn Screen Interoperability Resource Center. The project is part of a financial assistance award totaling $3,798,209 for the next three years.
The goal for the program is to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with heritable disorders in newborns and children by improving connectivity between state public health newborn screening programs and healthcare providers.
Using improved connectivity will improve the ability of states to conduct screening and report results in a timely manner to increase the likelihood that infants screened for serious conditions will receive a timely diagnoses and treatment.
Altarum and partners will provide technical assistance to states to advance their newborn screening interoperability by creating customized roadmaps for enhancing interoperability.
The partners include:
- OZ Systems https://www.ozsystems.com will recruit states to participate in the program, conduct environmental scans and readiness assessments, and deliver technical assistance
- University of Michigan’s Susan B Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center, https://ihpi.umich.edu will assess the adoption and implementation of existing newborn screen standards and lead the program’s performance evaluation
- American Academy of Pediatrics https://www.aap.org will help recruit their members to participate on state planning teams and help to disseminate materials