The Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) of Newborn Screening Research

Newborn Screening SPOTlight Podcast

We are excited to welcome Dr. Jeffrey Brosco to the NBSTRN SPOTlight today. Dr. Brosco will share moving stories from his lifetime of experiences caring for children and families as a clinician who specializes in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Brosco has both an M.D. and a Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and he serves as Florida’s Title V Director for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. Dr. Brosco has written numerous articles on the ethical, legal, social implications of newborn screening and along with Diane Paul, he authored a book called The PKU Paradox: A Short History of a Genetic Disease. In 2019 Dr. Brosco was awarded the Maternal and Child Health Bureau Director’s Award for contributions to the health of infants, mothers, children, adolescents, and children with special health care needs across the United States. Listen along with us as Dr. Brosco discusses a wide range of topics including the use of genomics to help end the diagnostic odyssey for families.

Podcast Interview Questions for Dr. Jeff Brosco

1. You are a pediatrician with a specialty in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and also currently the State of Florida’s Title V Director for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs.How did you get involved with newborn screening research? (Perhaps, you can give our listeners some background on Title V and your role as the director in your response).
2. You have written numerous articles on the ethical, legal, social implications of newborn screening. In one of your articles, you mentioned that whole and exome sequencing can add medical insights for families in the ‘diagnostic odyssey’ but in some case, families are still on the therapeutic odyssey. Here, you proposed a family-center approach to care in the genomic era. Could you elaborate to our listeners what this would be?
3. Research helps to advance newborn screening by increasing the number of conditions that may be a fit for early identification and intervention. Where do you think the next decade of research will take newborn screening?
4. In your recent publication, titled “Newborn Screening in Latin America: A Window on the Evolution of Health Policy,” you hypothesized that the history of NBS programs could be used to understand the development of health policy. Please share some of your takeaways from this effort and which comes first – NBS expansion or health policy – or are they intertwined? Are there unique game changers from a historical perspective that resulted in significant change?
5. Are you involved in training the next generation of developmental-behavioral pediatricians and what do you tell them about newborn screening research?
6. You played a key role in advancing the efforts of the NBSTRN for many years. What role does NBSTRN play? What role could NBSTRN play in your efforts to addressing the ethical, legal, social implications of NBS?
7. As you think about your career as a clinician, are there any patient or family stories that you’d like to share with our audience?
8. What does NBS research mean to you?

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