AACC urges Congress to finalize the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act of 2013

Clinical laboratory testing ensures that thousands of infants receive life-saving treatments every year, yet certain pediatric testing programs could lose their funding if Congress does not finalize the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act of 2013. Tomorrow, October 14, AACC will host a congressional briefing to discuss how this legislation could save even more children from death and disability by enabling advances in pediatric laboratory testing to continue.

During the briefing, pediatric laboratory medicine experts Michael Bennett, PhD, incoming AACC President-elect Patricia Jones, PhD, and Shannon Haymond, PhD, will explain how laboratory testing improves childhood health by enabling doctors to diagnose, treat, and monitor serious conditions ranging from rare genetic disorders to premature heart disease. Former AACC President Robert Christenson, PhD, will act as moderator.

The presenters all hold positions as children’s hospital laboratory directors. Dr. Bennett is director of the metabolic disease laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Dr. Jones is director of clinical chemistry at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas; and Dr. Haymond is director of clinical chemistry and mass spectrometry at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Dr. Christenson is a professor of pathology and of medical and research technology at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

This briefing is sponsored by Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who introduced the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act of 2013 in the U.S. House of Representatives last year.

Newborn screening, the practice of testing every newborn for treatable genetic conditions, prevents severe disability, developmental delays, or death in thousands of infants every year. Thanks to legislation enacted in 2008, the number of states conducting newborn screening has increased four-fold, and more than 98 percent of newborns now undergo laboratory screening for 29 conditions. Read the text of the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act of 2013.