Newborn Screening Program for Israel

A comprehensive newborn screening program is intended to cover every child born in Israel. Newborns will be screened for hypothyroidism, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and cystic fibrosis. One blood sample only is needed for the three tests and is collected from a small prick to the heel of a newborn's foot.

Israel recently expanded its newborn screening program to improve the standard of healthcare that all newborns receive. The PerkinElmer (Boston, MA, USA) screening program will help to monitor almost every one of the 120,000 babies born each year in Israel. The program was selected by the Chaim Sheba Medical Center (Tel Aviv, Israel)

PerkinElmer will provide Israel with instrumentation, reagents, scientific expertise, and a robust informatics system that will enhance the nation's neonatal screening and data-management capabilities. The contract, to be executed through PerkinElmer's regional distributors HVD Vertriebs Gmbh (Vienna, Austria) and Gamidor Ltd. (Abington, UK), will fulfill a recent mandate by Israel's Medical Research Infrastructure Development and Health Services Fund to substantially expand its newborn screening program to cover Israel's entire population and increase the number of tests that will be used to screen for indications of disease.

Israel's enhanced neonatal screening initiative will be built around PerkinElmer's AutoDelfia automatic immunoassay system. To augment Israel's screening capacity in order to accommodate additional tests, PerkinElmer will deliver multiple AutoDelfia units as well as reagents and equipment.

The three tests that will be sourced from PerkinElmer for Israel's expanded neonatal screening program are a 17_OH progesterone test for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a hormonal disorder affecting the adrenal glands, and a human thyroid stimulating hormone (hTSH) test and a T4 test for congenital hypothyroidism (CH), which if left untreated can lead to severe mental retardation.



Related Links:
PerkinElmer
Chaim Sheba Medical Center