This national technical assistance (TA) center, called NBS Excel, gives expert advice, data, and training to improve newborn screening (NBS) programs. The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) runs this center.
Awards
In 2023, we awarded one cooperative agreement to APHL. This award of $2.3 million each year will continue for 5 years until 2028.
Read the closed funding opportunity notice (HRSA-23-077) for details.
Our reach
This center helps all states, U.S. territories, and the freely associated state newborn screening (NBS) programs and their stakeholders.
How the National Center for Newborn Screening System Excellence works
This TA center, NBS Excel, gives leadership and expert advice to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of newborn screening programs. NBS Excel supports all states, especially Propel and co-Propel grantees, to implement new RUSP conditions, improve short-term follow-up, and expand efforts to ensure long-term follow-up.
It helps states to:
Meet timeliness goals
The TA center helps programs collect and report data on the how quickly they screen, diagnose, and treat. Faster and efficient processes can improve outcomes and possibly reduce deaths or disabilities for infants with an NBS condition.
Involve and equip families
Families are at the center of this system. How they interact with it affects their children’s health and well-being and their own. Families need information and education to successfully navigate screening, diagnosis, treatment, and long-term follow-up in health and social services.
The TA center trains and educates families and those growing up with a condition. Involved families become leaders in the systems that serve them, giving ideas and solutions to make the systems better.
The TA center works with Expecting Health, who ran the Newborn Screening Family Education Program. APHL also works with Family Voices, the Family Engagement and Leadership in Systems of Care (FELSC) program awardee. These partnerships help families get involved and improve outcomes for babies and young children.
Enhance state program abilities
The TA center provides training, education, and data for all NBS programs. It helps them improve quality. The TA center supports data interoperability, which means different systems can share and use data. This ensures efficiency and collaboration. It also supports long-term follow-up efforts.
Shape new policies
The TA center, as an expert in building strong screening systems, creates policy statements based on the best data.
Impact across multiple systems
When state NBS systems get better, other public health systems also improve. For example, children with sickle cell disease or those who are deaf and hard of hearing benefit when clinicians, families, and other organizations work together smoothly.
From 2023 to 2024, this TA center worked with partners to connect the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program, the dried bloodspots screening programs, and the Clinical Screening and Diagnosis for Critical Congenital Heart Defects programs. This collaborative was called the Unite Newborn Screening Learning Community.
Key resources from this center
NBS Excel provides a Resource Library. This library can be sorted by disorder, type, and topic.
More information
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Jobs
Find open positions with HRSA.
Contact us
Need more information, or have a specific question? Contact us at NBSprograms@hrsa.gov.
Want to understand more about newborn screening? Visit the Newborn Screening Information Center for information on health conditions, the process, and your state’s program.