Neonatal screening is a system and the ISNS acknowledges the important role of all pieces of the newborn screening chain, parents, babies, laboratory specialists, clinical specialists, ICT-specialists, etc.. A group that is easily overlooked but really is first and center in the system are our colleagues that take responsibility for informing the parents, performing the heel stick and filling the circles on the blood collection cards. Nurses, midwives and other colleagues that ensure that in the laboratory enough punches taken from those cards are available to perform the many laboratory tests. Thus, it was with pleasure that we picked up a message of the Dutch neonatal screening program, thanking this specific group of screeners on the occasion of #Neonatalscreeningday 2024. The ISNS is happy to share this message, acknowledging the important work of our colleagues that perform the 40 million heel pricks per year globally. Thank you!
50 years of heel prick in the Netherlands, thank you screeners!
On September 1, 2024, the heel prick will celebrate its 50th anniversary in the Netherlands. What started in the Netherlands in 1974 with the screening for one disease, phenylketonuria (PKU), has grown in 50 years into an extensive program with 27 diseases.
An important, indispensable link in the chain of the heel prick is the screener. In the Netherlands, these employees have been going into the neighbourhood in all weathers for half a century to help families where a baby has just been born.
On 28 June, International Neonatal Screening Day, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) put the almost 1000 screeners in the Netherlands in the spotlight with a small gift: a breeding kit with marigolds.
In the photo, Selma Went MBA, regional manager West and South a.i. of DVP-RIVM, handing over the gift to screener Ingrid Delfos of CJG Rijnmond.
#INSD #Internationalneonatalscreeningday #50jaarhielprik
#screeners #NHS
Internationale Neonatale Screeningsdag
Vandaag, 28 juni, is het International Neonatal Screening Day, een dag waarop de verjaardag wordt gevierd van Dr. Robert Guthrie, de Amerikaanse microbioloog die de eerste gedroogde bloedvlektesten voor zeldzame ziekten introduceerde.
In het programma Neonatale hielprikscreening (NHS) maken we dankbaar gebruik van deze testvorm. Via de hielprikscreening kunnen we baby’s testen op 27 zeldzame behandelbare aandoeningen. Een belangrijke schakel in de keten van de hielprik is de screener. Deze medewerkers gaan in Nederland al een halve eeuw door weer en wind om de hielprik bij baby’s af te nemen. Vandaag zetten wij de bijna 1000 screeners extra in het zonnetje met een kleine attentie. Op de foto Selma Went regiomanager West en Zuid a.i. van DVP-RIVM die een attentie overhandigt aan screener Ingrid Delfos van CJG Rijnmond. Namens alle NHS-medewerkers bedankt voor jullie belangrijke werk! #50jaarhielprik #screeners #NHS
