Baby’s First Test Funds Innovative Newborn Screening Education Program for Hospital NICUs

Baby’s First Test, the nation’s clearinghouse for newborn screening information, is pleased to announce the 2016 Challenge Award recipients. The Challenge Awards program builds upon the creative and inventive nature of the newborn screening community by supporting and funding proposals highlighting innovative solutions to challenges within the newborn screening community.

The 2016 Challenge Awards are focused on improving newborn screening education among Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nursing professionals. Each funded project will receive up to $40,000 each to implement and scale Connecting the Dots, a leading newborn screening education module for NICU nurses in tertiary care facilities and for families of babies in the NICU. Created in 2013 with support from that year’s Challenge Awards, Connecting the Dots was launched by Stacy Hines Dowell, DNP, AGN-BC to address NICU nurses’ knowledge and barriers regarding newborn screening.

“I am incredibly proud of the enthusiasm and momentum Baby’s First Test has generated around Connecting the Dots in effort to bring awareness and solutions to the challenges facing the newborn screening community, especially nurses,” said Stacy Hines-Dowell, DNP, AGN-BC. “I congratulate each Challenge Award winner and look forward to the actualization of their innovative visions to scale Connecting the Dots within their institutions.”

Over a six-month period, recipients will work collaboratively with Baby’s First Test to implement and evaluate their projects. This year’s recipients are as follows:

Albany Medical Center: Located in Albany, New York, the Bernard & Millie Duker Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center will utilize its active NICU Newborn Screening Process Improvement Committee to scale the Connecting the Dots module and to incorporate innovative ‘Newborn Screening Rounds’ as part of their existing multidisciplinary rounds.

Saint Peter’s University Hospital: Located in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the
Department of Medical Genetics and Genomic Medicine at Saint Peter’s
University Hospital will host a series of live educational seminars for its nursing staff using the Connecting the Dots module.

Congratulations to both Albany Medical Center and Saint Peter’s University Hospital!

Contact: Jackie Seisman, Program Manager, Baby’s First Test at Jackie@BabysFirstTest.org.

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About Baby’s First Test. Baby’s First Test is the nation’s newborn screening clearinghouse. It informs and empowers families and healthcare providers throughout the newborn screening experience. The National Clearinghouse is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Cooperative Agreement no. U36MC16509 (Quality Assessment of the Newborn Screening System. Total award amount: $2,900,000) to Genetic Alliance. 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. For more information, visit BabysFirstTest.org and Spanish.BabysFirstTest.org.

About Genetic Alliance. Genetic Alliance engages individuals, families, and communities to transform health. Founded in 1986, it is the world’s largest nonprofit health advocacy organization network. Genetic Alliance’s network includes more than 1,200 disease-specific advocacy organizations, as well as thousands of universities, private companies, government agencies, and public policy organizations. For more information about Genetic Alliance, visit www.geneticalliance.org.

About Saint Peter’s University Hospital. Saint Peter’s University Hospital, a member of the Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, is a nonprofit, acute care facility sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey. Saint Peter’s is a 478-bed teaching hospital that provides a broad array of services to the community, including a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and brings the latest medical practices and highly skilled professionals to the bedside. The Department of Medical Genetics and Genomic Medicine at Saint Peter’s is a premier provider of high-impact comprehensive clinical genetic services and experiential genetics education. It serves as one of three regional newborn screening and comprehensive genetic centers in New Jersey for the state’s population of 8.9 million, and provides leadership roles on NJS’s Metabolic Task Force, Lysosomal Storage Disorder Sub-Committee, and the Newborn Screening Advisory Review Committee. New Jersey is slated to screen for more disorders on newborn screening than any other state in the country beginning in the third quarter of 2016. For more information: www.saintpetershcs.com/saintpetersuh/.

About Albany Medical Center. Albany Medical Center, northeastern New York’s only academic health sciences center, is one of the largest private employers in the Capital Region. It incorporates the 734-bed Albany Medical Center Hospital, which offers the widest range of medical and surgical services in the region, and the Albany Medical College, which trains the next generation of doctors, scientists and other healthcare professionals, and also includes a biomedical research enterprise and the region’s largest physicians practice with more than 450 doctors. Albany Medical Center works with dozens of community partners to improve the region’s health and quality of life. For more information: www.amc.edu or www.facebook.com/albanymedicalcenter.

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