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Newborn Screening Overview

4.1 million newborns are screened annually for congenital disorders in the United States. Of these, 4,000 infants are diagnosed as having a condition and it is estimated that 1,000 infants have conditions that go undetected. 1

The information on this site is intended to promote comprehensive care through Medical Homes for children born with very rare inherited disorders diagnosed through newborn screening. By knowing more about these very rare disorders and the advantages of establishing medical home measures, the primary care physician can work with the child and family to develop a comprehensive plan of care. Such efforts provide opportunities to enhance successful outcomes and promote evidence-based care.

What is a Medical Home? It's an approach for providing comprehensive primary health care.

A Medical Home:

  • promotes a relationship in which family members and professionals work together to ensure the best services for the child and the family.
  • recognizes and respects the knowledge, skills and experience that families and professionals bring to the relationship.
  • facilitates open communication so that families and professionals feel free to express themselves.
  • creates an atmosphere in which cultural traditions, values and diversity of families are acknowledged and honored.

The Medical Home model promotes proactive health care coordination, where primary care providers and families collaboratively engage in assessing and planning to meet a child's health care needs. Primary care physicians utilize policies, practice guidelines, and standards of care to anticipate needs and coordinate care.
In a Medical Home, a primary care provider works in partnership with the family/patient to assure that all medical and non-medical needs of the patient are met. Through this partnership, the primary care provider can help the family/patient access and coordinate specialty care, educational services, out-of-home care, family support, and other public and private community services that are important to the overall health of the child/youth and family.

Featured Information

newMedial Home/Genetics Visiting Professorship Pilot Program

The American Academy of Pediatrics National Center for Medical Home Initiatives for Children with Special Needs and the American College of Medical Genetics’ National Coordinating Center for the Regional Genetics and Newborn Screening Service Collaboratives (NCC) in partnership with the ACMG and MCHB recently developed a pilot visiting professorship program. This program focuses on the specific topic areas of genetics and medical home and also establishing linkages between Regional Genetics and Newborn Screening Services Collaboratives (RCs) and AAP Chapters.

The Congratulations to Pilot Program-Visiting Professorship Winners:

Medical Home Visiting Professorships
Mountain States Regional Collaborative (AZ, CO, MT, NM, NV, TX, UT, & WV)
Region 4 Collaborative (IL, IN, KY, MI, MN, OH, & WI)
Western States Regional Collaborative (AK, CA, Gaum, HA, ID, OR, & WA)

Genetic Visiting Professorships
 Illinois Chapter           
Georgia Chapter
Montana Chapter
New York 3 Chapter
Uniformed Service West Chapter

Newborn Screening Authoring Committee. 2007. Newborn screening expands: Recommendations for pediatricians and medical homes -- Implications for the system. Pediatrics 121(1):192-218.

Newborn Screening ACT Sheets for Pediatricians
www.acmg.net/resources/policies/ACT/condition-analyte-links.htm 
This website has a table describing the interrelationships between the conditions screened in newborn screening laboratories and the markers (analytes) used for screening. For each marker(s), there is 1) an ACTion (ACT) sheet that describes the short term actions a health professional should follow in communicating with the family and determining the appropriate steps in the follow-up of the infant that has screened positive, and 2) an algorithm that presents an overview of the basic steps involved in determining the final diagnosis in the infant.


Early Intervention
Increasingly, the benefits of early identification and treatment on child health outcomes are being proven. A child's primary healthcare professional's ability to perform continuous surveillance and structured screening within the context of a routine, well-child care visit provides an opportunity to identify special health care needs. However, once a child is identified with having a special health care need, appropriate diagnosis and follow-up must readily occur. It is in this "next step" phase that the relationship between the medical home and an Early Intervention program becomes critical.
More Information on Early Intervention

1. Overview of NBS programs: state of the states. Briefing presented at: the first meeting of the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders and Genetic Diseases in Newborns and Children; June 7-8, 2004; Washington, DC.

2. American Academy of Pediatrics Newborn Screening Task Force. Serving the family from birth to the medical home. Newborn screening: a blueprint for the future - a call for a national agenda on state newborn screening programs. Pediatrics. 2000;3:143-155

*This page includes resources that have compiled to date. If you would like to suggest additional resources to be added please sent them to screening@aap.org for review.

* External Resources are not a part of the AAP.ORG Web site. AAP is not responsible for the content of sites that are external to the AAP. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an endorsement by AAP of the sponsors of the site or the information presented on the site.

Last Updated July 25, 2008

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