Panel and health officials defend technical-advisory path for adding newborn screens

The Pennsylvania House Health Committee heard competing views Friday about how the commonwealth should add conditions to its newborn screening panel, with state officials urging adherence to an expert advisory process and advocates arguing the Department of Health should move more quickly on some disorders.

The panel’s opening witness, Gerald Vockley, MD, Cleveland Family Endowed Professor in Pediatric Research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and former chair of the Pennsylvania Newborn Screening Technical Advisory Board, said the TAB’s role is to provide scientifically rigorous review of proposed additions to the screening panel. "Newborn screening has been identified by the Center for Disease Control as 1 of the top 10 public health efforts of the twentieth century," he said, describing the board’s statutory advisory…