APPROACHES TO SCREENING

Abstract

Georgia's newborn screening program for hemoglobinopathies has been evolving for more than 23 years. The program began in 1964 with the screening of infants at 6 months of age and progressed to the full-scale implementation of a statewide hemoglobinopathy newborn screening program in 1980. The program functions as a cooperative effort with several major components: two tertiary care centers, a community-based clinic, and the state public health department. The tertiary care centers consist of the Augusta Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center affiliated with the Medical College of Georgia and the Georgia Sickle Cell Center at Grady Hospital affiliated with Emory University School of Medicine. These two centers are responsible for patient care, education, and research. The community component consists of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia, which is responsible for counceling clients with sickle cell trait, community education, and notification of parents of infants with normal test results. The state component consists of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, which is responsible for program administration and primary laboratory testing. The program components coordinate their services through a voluntary organization known as the Georgia Sickle Cell Task Force. The organization consists of representatives from agencies and organizations actively involved in the provision of services for patients with sickle cell disease. The members of this organization work together to ensure an efficient service network for education, testing, counseling, patient management, program monitoring, and evaluation. Georgia's screening program can best be described as a targeted, voluntary, mandatory screening program, which means that, unless the mother objects to having her infant tested on religious grounds, infants in 13 ethnic groups are automatically tested because they are considered at risk (African, Arabian, Central American, Greek, Maltese, Hispanic, Indian, Portuguese, Puerto Rican, Sardinian, Sicilian, South American, and Southern Asian).