Posted on: Friday, February 15, 2002

Project offers expanded health tests for newborns

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer

New mothers will soon get a chance to have their babies screened for a wider variety of inherited health disorders at no additional cost, under a pilot state program.

The Hawai'i Newborn Metabolic Screening Program will launch the program March 1 at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children to gauge whether expanding newborn screening tests offered by the state would be cost-effective, program coordinator Christine Matsumoto said.

Babies born in Hawai'i are required to be screened for seven potentially serious disorders, such as sickle cell conditions.

Most insurance plans cover the $27 cost.

The pilot program would offer screening for an additional 30 disorders.

Participation in the research study is voluntary. The program's goal is to collect about 3,000 specimens from newborns by Dec. 31.

The purpose of the study is to see whether the additional cost of testing newborns for these extremely rare disorders, many of which cannot be treated or cured, is worthwhile, Matsumoto said.

The program is financed by a $3.9 million federal grant awarded to California, which invited Hawai'i to participate in its pilot program.

For more information about the program, contact the Hawai'i Newborn Metabolic Screening Program at 733-9069.