In July 2014, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) added, by emergency rule, screening for Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) by pulse oximetry to the Wisconsin Newborn Screening Program’s panel of conditions. This means that every infant born in a hospital is now required to have CCHD screening prior to discharge, and babies born out of hospital are also required to be screened. Because of this ruling, the Wisconsin SHINE (Screening Hearts in Newborns) Project, led by John Hokanson, MD, has received funding from the state for this project to meet this demand.
The SHINE Project began as a three-year, federally funded program in 2012, supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Health Resources and Services Administration (DHHS-HRSA). The Wisconsin SHINE Project, supported by the Wisconsin DHS, is a statewide collaboration designed to provide information and resources for universal screening of newborns for CCHD, and is a collaborative effort of the University of Wisconsin, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin DHS, and Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. The SHINE project also hopes to collect information on all Wisconsin’s births, including hospital, birthing center, and home deliveries.