As a pediatric cardiologist, I had grown increasingly concerned over the years about the many seemingly healthy newborns who left the hospital, only to return a few hours or days later in shock as a result of undetected heart problems. Two years ago, I wrote about the problem on the Well blog in an article, “Screening Babies for Broken Hearts,” in which I described a simple, cheap and painless screening test to check newborns for potentially lethal heart defects…During the pilot program she had contacted Dr. Piero Rinaldo, a geneticist at the Mayo Clinic who also happened to be a member of an influential federal committee that makes national newborn screening policy recommendations. Dr. Rinaldo introduced the idea to the full committee, and evidence reviews and public committee meetings began. 

NY Times, Darshak Sanghavi, M.D., 11/18/11

Additional coverage of newborn screening: Post-Bulletin,

Tags: ObGyn