View the report here: Newborn Screening for Heart Defects Using Pulse Oximetry Recommended

There are few words to describe the excitement.  Thinking back to Eve’s Impact, her diagnosis and surgeries – and on to that day in the fall of 2009, when the team in Minnesota agreed to pursue a pilot project, to discussing a federal nomination with the committee member, to providing comments to the federal advisory committee and participating in this federal workgroup that yielded this report..it’s been a whirlwind.  Now, all this news coverage in the past 24 hours.  It’s clear the time has come to use all the tools available to support the early detection of heart defects in newborns.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7377689n&tag=mg;earlyshow

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/21/health/la-he-heart-screening-20110822

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/news/20110819/blood-oxygen-test-finds-heart-defects-in-newborns

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/748382

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/boostershots/la-he-heart-screening-20110822,0,1119997.story

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2015978538_webheart22.html

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/rethinking-healthcare/could-a-new-screening-help-identify-heart-problems-for-newborns/6335

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/heart/articles/2011/08/22/steps-outlined-to-screen-all-newborns-for-heart-defects

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/08/22/screening-newborns-for-congenital-heart-disease/?mod=WSJBlog

In that spirit, I wanted to share this recent story from CNN online.  http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/22/darth-vaders-mom-we-focus-on-today/

Dr. Gupta highlights little Max, the Tetralogy of Fallot survivor who played Darth Vadar on the high profile SuperBowl ad.  His family’s advocacy stretches beyond CHD to patient access to pediatric specialty care.  It’s important to understand that not so many years ago, Max would never have survived TOF.  And the fact is that today, Max still may not have survived TOF without early diagnosis.  Made me curious about the informal survey findings shared at the January CCHD Implementation Workgroup meeting in DC.  I looked back and found that of the 68 patient families responding (all postnatal diagnosis), 12 were cases of TOF, a defect that would surely present with desaturation, if evaluated with pulse oximetry. Of those 3 babies were not diagnosed until after discharge from the nursery.

This country is waiting – today – for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to adopt a formal recommendation already made by its federal advisory committee to screen all newborns for Critical Congenital Heart Defects before discharge from the hospital. Max was diagnosed before birth (but just barely). Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), Max’s condition – is one of the most prominent heart defects that can be detected with the help of pulse oximetry screening in the newborn nursery. Babies around the country being born in hospitals where these conditions are not seen very often will be helped, or saved, by early diagnosis. It’s really just a simple vital sign check – non-invasive and about the cost of a diaper change.

We continue to be hopeful that the federal guidance on this issue will come very shortly – so critical for the advocates, and the provider and public health communities who are continuing to move forward.

The statement from the federal advisory committee can be viewed here: http://www.hrsa.gov/heritabledisorderscommittee/correspondence/October15th2010letter.htm

More about the SACHDNC:
http://www.hrsa.gov/heritabledisorderscommittee/

More about the SACHDNC: Workgroup on Screening for Critical Congenital Cyanotic Heart Disease
http://altarum.cvent.com/events/ccchd-meeting/custom-22-f8929dc795694e7aa6c588c263e31554.aspx

SACHDNC letter to Secretary Sebelius Recommending Newborn Screening for CCHD

http://www.hrsa.gov/heritabledisorderscommittee/correspondence/October15th2010letter.htm

Statement from AAP New Jersey on Pulse Oximetry screening:

http://pulseoxadvocacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Bill-A3744-1.pdf

http://www.cchdscreeningmap.com/

Pulse Oximetry Advocacy Temporary Toolkit:

Interactive screening map with current state legislation, legislation pending and hospitals screening for CCHD:

http://www.cchdscreeningmap.com/

I. INITIAL OUTREACH TARGETS

State Departments of Health

Newborn Screening and/or birth defect surveillance divisions

Hospital Medical Staff – contacts

Pediatric Cardiology
Neonatology
Pediatrics
Nursing
Newborn nurseries/Labor & Delivery

Hospital Administration

CEO
Chief Financial Officer
Medical Director
Nursing Executive Leadership
Patient Safety/Patient Care

Organizations

AAP – State Chapter leadership  – AAP Chapters

Hospital Associations by State

America Heart Association (state chapter)

Pediatric Heart Organizations /Sites (some with State Chapters)

Mended Little Hearts
It’s My Heart
Lasting Imprint
Congenital Heart Information Network
Bless Her Heart
Children’s Heart Foundation
James’ Project
CHD Speaks
BabyCenter Community: Babies and Children with Heart Problems
Helping Hands, Healing Hearts
CHD Babies
II. INITIAL TALKING POINTS

Website and address of every hospital in the US, by state: http://hospitalandmedicalcentercompare.com/by-state

Draft Hospital Outreach Letter

Click here for the Word document file.Letters sent in support of Newborn Screening for CCHD to the Department of Health and Human Services

Children’s National Medical Center, Washington DC

Darshak Sanghavi, M.D., UMass Memorial and University of Massachusetts Medical School Letter

Patient Safety Advocates Letter

III. FEDERAL RECOMMENDATION – NEWBORN SCREENING FOR CRITICAL CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE (using Pulse Oximetry)

It was clearly stated that the Secretary recognizes the critical importance of CCHD, and has requested further efforts be undertaken immediately to work through the issues surrounding the pulse ox technology itself, follow up diagnostics, service infrastructure, and education. The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act (of 2007) required the formation of a supplemental Interagency Coordinating Committee on Newborn and Child Screening issues. This committee includes directors of the CDD, HRSA, NIH and AHRQ. The committee has been IMMEDIATELY tasked with reviewing the original SACHDNC five recommendations, any gap areas, and the document produced from the Implementation Workgroup – their goal is to close the gaps. It is the committee’s first order of business…and they have 90 DAYS to provide a plan of action.

Here’s what I know. Without the outreach all of you did, sharing your support and personal stories, this important secondary advisory committee step wouldn’t be happening. This was going down the road of being an averted recommendation. Now it’s not.

So while we might not have the green light quite yet, the motor is running and the car is in gear. Please accept my profound gratitude for all you continue to do to support early diagnosis of heart defects.

I can be honest here, with all of you. These last 10 days have been hard. a hundred hours of time, anxiety, nausea, all of it. My first reaction to the 90 day delay was this: in 90 days, 1,000 more babies will die – and realistically, 200-300 of them will be contributed to by late diagnosis.

But I also realize there is solid intent on the part of the federal stakeholders to get this right. In that spirit,  let’s support this effort, continue the work already being done, and look forward to widespread implementation of newborn screening for CCHD.   #1in100 ]]> http://1in100.org/up-next-newborn-screening-for-heart-defects/feed/ 1 http://1in100.org/these-are-not-isolated-incidents/ http://1in100.org/these-are-not-isolated-incidents/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 04:34:41 +0000 asaarinen http://1in100.org/?p=185

This gorgeous little girl is Taryn Kennedy.  She was happy, healthy, growing until almost one month old.  Her parents didn’t see it coming, and she was lost to an undiagnosed heart defect – TAPVR – at 29 days old.  I stood next to her mom, Vi Kennedy (blessherheart.org), just two weeks ago at the national advisory committee meeting evaluating newborn screening for Critical Congenital Heart Defects.  She is eloquent and brave…and she is not alone.

I sent this via email to the members of our Minnesota pulse ox pilot team about 6 weeks ago.  Thought it was worth posting here.  I am amazed by the continuity and consistency of the data that comes in regarding newborn screening for CCHD.  I get that we have a bias…but the facts are simply becoming far to difficult to argue with.  As Dr. Martin put it to the national committee “these are not isolated incidents, babies are missed all the time…”   Feel free to add your comments or feedback – the armor gets stronger every day.  Here’s the email:

Wanted to share this with you.  They are the top 8 defects – in order of prevalence – that are the most often missed during routine newborn exam alone (these come from Dr. Hoffman’s recent paper and gathered study data).  Below that are some of the responses heart families posted on what their undiagnosed defects were…on our Facebook page alone, we got over 2 dozen responses in a matter of a few hours.  I may post again to see what additional feedback comes in.  Would be interested to hear if anything hear strikes you as unusual (other than an HLHS baby going undiagnosed for 2 months!)   Annamarie

1. Coarctation of the Aorta (COA)

2. Interrupted aortic arch

3. Aortic stenosis

4. Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS)

5. d-TGA

6. Truncus arteriosus

7. Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF)

8. TAPVC

RESPONSES:

1. Marlee had an Interupted Aortic Arch and a VSD and wasn’t diagnosed until she was 2 days old and her PDA was closing!

2. My son had d-TGA with a VSD. Dx at 5 days old!!!

3. The defects listed are critical when the children’s lives depend on the ductus staying open. This is why I would like to follow the pulse ox push before discharge with a pulse ox at the pediatrician’s office on day three. There will be many, many more caught if we can do both (posted by a former NICU nurse in Tennessee)

4. They didn’t catch Lauren’s HLHS in utero. We didn’t know something was wrong until about 19 hours after she was born when she stopped nursing. The surgeon told us later they may have missed it because her left ventricle is 60% the size it should be, which is large for HLHS. At one point, they even considered trying to let her use the left ventricle, but they decided against it.

5. They didn’t catch Brayden’s TOF in utero. Diagnosed at 3 days old.

6. None of Caylen’s defects including heterotaxy, dextrocardia, TGA, av discordance (just some of the major defects) were seen in utero. It took them three days just to figure out all her defects and diagnose her.  I love the pulse ox campaign, though, to catch all the ones who don’t show up as dramatically as hers did after she was born. I push it to everyone. My brother is a respiratory therapist in a NICU and he’s pushing the idea, too.

7. My daughter’s TOF was diagnosed at three days old…we knew something wasn’t right because her murmur was SO loud but, nothing was ever picked up in utero.

8. My son was born with a vsd, pds, asd, and an extra mass in his heart.. and he was born with heterotaxy and polysplenia syndrome and we didn’t find out until he was 2 months old because he was breathing fast. I took him to the emergency room and that’s how we found out…we were in total shock.

9. My daughter’s TOF was caught by a nurse who heard the very loud murmur AFTER the doc wrote our discharge orders for home. We were literally 10 minutes away from going home. An OB/GYN did our US at 18 weeks and couldn’t get the blood flow. I will always wonder if someone else would have detected the TOF. I’m all for the pulse ox and blood pressure check on upper and lower extremities.

10. I had 5 sonograms – and none caught Dom’s CHD (coarctation of the aorta, biccupsid aortic valve, mitral valve stenosis). The only reason why it was caught before we went home because we were in NICU because they thought he had an infection and he was getting antibiotics. They heard the mumur when he was 4 days old and did the echo just as procedure. I was told that if it wasn’t caught then, I would have been back in the hospital before 2 weeks was up with Dom in heart failure. So I am thankful that we happened to be in the right place at the right time.

11. Maddy’s TAPVR went undetected for two weeks after birth.

12. My son had critical aortic stenosis that was not caught until a few hours after he was born. He turned blue shortly after he was born. He ended up having a heart transplant when he was 6 weeks old. He will be 7 yrs next week! I love the idea of the Pulse Ox for all new borns!

13. Alex’s HLHS wasn’t diagnosed until he was 2 months old. It’s a miracle he’s still with us. An unusually large left ventrical was the difference.  Hopefully we can work together to make sure more heart defects are detected earlier so others won’t have to worry like we did.