The Neonatal heel prick screening is a nationwide screening program for babies in the first week after birth. Annually approximately 170.000 newborns in the Netherlands receive the heel prick. The heel prick screening is the longest running nationwide screening program in public healthcare in the Netherlands.
The analysis of the heel prick blood provides important information about currently 19 rare, often hereditary, serious diseases. Early detection of these diseases is crucial to limit or prevent serious damage to health by timely treatment of babies that are born mostly symptomless. The blood tests are performed by five screening laboratories, of which the laboratory of the RIVM acts as a reference laboratory. The screening laboratories are responsible for the analysis of the heel prick blood and adequete reporting of the results. High demands are placed on the reliability and quality of the blood tests. The analyses must be carried out in a timely manner and with great care.
In July 2015, the Minister of VWS took up the recommendation of the Health Council to add 14 disorders to the screening program. With the expasion plans of the heel prick program to 31 diseases the number of functionalities and complexity will increase significantly. As the current LIMS system is not sufficiently equipped for these changes replacement is necessary. Therefore RIVM published a European Public tender for the delivery, implementation and maintenance of a LIMS for neonatal heel prick screening.
The European tender for this NHS project started early 2017 and finally 4 vendors were selected for a final proposal and a dedicated demonstration to show their fit to the RIVM requirements. Critical elements in the delivery of the new NHS-LIMS include integration with lab equipment, interpretation functionality (desicion rules), and the administrative process support system. The full digitalization of the information on the heel prick card with a mobile App has been determined as a potential added value for the near future. Finally iVention was selected as the best quilified partner for the assignment. The agreement was signed on July 5th at RIVM in Bilthoven.
"Great teamwork, passion, talent and challenging work in iVention was formed the basis for this new success" according to Oscar Kox, the CEO of iVention.