AURORA, Colo. (Feb. 16, 2016) - The 'NewSTEPs 360' program, a collaboration between the Colorado School of Public Health (ColoradoSPH) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), has selected 20 states that will endeavor to improve newborn screening and save the lives of babies who are born with rare but serious conditions.
These states are the initial cohort supported through a $5.4 million dollar funding initiative from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Newborn screening (NBS) in the United States is routinely performed on more than 4 million newborns annually and saves or improves the lives of more than 12,000 infants. However delays in the timing of the diagnosis can lead to serious consequences or even death. NewSTEPs 360 aims to improve timeliness measures across the NBS spectrum.
The program provides quality improvement training, individualized coaching of each state and the analysis of real time data impacting changes in selected state programs by shortening the timeframe between birth and identification.
Following a rigorous application process 20 state/territorial NBS programs were chosen to participate in NewSTEPs 360:
Over the next three years, NewSTEPs 360 will continue to provide financial and technical assistance to participating NBS programs, and will implement innovative processes to provide support to additional NBS programs in need of quality improvement services specific to timeliness in NBS.
This project is a collaboration with Newborn Screening Clearinghouse (Baby's First Test) housed at Genetic Alliance, the National Institute for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the Association of Maternal Child Health Programs (AMCHP), March of Dimes (MOD), the National Coordinating Center for Regional Genetics Collaboratives and the Newborn Screening Translational Research Network (NBSTRN), both housed at the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG), and OZ Systems.
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant UG8MC28554 - Improving Timeliness of Newborn Screening Diagnosis in the amount of $5.4 million. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.
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