Located at the University of California, San Francisco and two other institutions in Southern California and the Central Valley, these geographically based centers are unique to California. They will certify and monitor local hospitals to maintain quality hearing screening and manage a tracking system to make sure newborns identified with possible hearing loss are not lost to followup. The goal: that every family of a baby with hearing loss can get help to give the child appropriate early intervention within the first six months of life. In states without coordinated tracking systems, up to 50 percent of the infants who fail the newborn screen do not receive the necessary services to determine whether they have a significant hearing loss. "For a baby born with a significant hearing loss, the first few months of life are crucial to the ability to learn to use language," said UCSF audiologist Toni Iten Will, MSPA, director of the UCSF-based Hearing Coordination Center for the Bay Area/Coastal Region.

REPORTERS NOTE:
A press availability at UCSF on Monday, July 24 will show reporters how newborn hearing screening is done and introduce them to a family who can speak to the value of screening soon after birth. CONTACT: Janet Basu at (415) 476-2557.

In Sacramento on July 24, California Health and Human Services Secretary Grantland Johnson will introduce the state's newborn hearing screening program. CONTACT: Norma Arceo, California Department of Health Services (916) 657-0942. "Research shows that babies who are identified early and receive interventions by six months of age, such as family support and education, hearing aids, visual and auditory stimulation and manual signs for words, are more likely to develop normal language and communication skills," Will said. "Those whose hearing loss is not detected until age two or later struggle against a big disadvantage that continues when the child enters school."

California's Newborn Hearing Screening Program, mandated by a 1998 state law, will certify more than 200 hospitals to offer screening to all children born in their maternity units by December, 2002. Trained staff will perform a painless, non-invasive test, often conducted while the baby sleeps, to detect possible hearing loss.

Once the program is fully operational, state-certified hospitals will offer screening to the families of 400,000 newborns a year, more than 70 percent of the babies born in the state. As many as 25,000 infants a year are expected to require followup re-screening, and some 4,000 of those will be followed with additional diagnostic audiologist testing. Infants identified with significant hearing loss will be referred for medical evaluation and treatment, educational and support services in cooperation with community agencies that offer early intervention.

Permanent significant hearing loss occurs in two to four infants per thousand in the United States. One of every 1,000 babies is profoundly deaf.

California's screening program is expected to identify 1,200 California babies who need hearing intervention each year.

The Hearing Coordination Center for the Bay Area/Coastal Region based at UCSF will serve 16 Bay Area and Northern California coastal counties. The other centers are the Northeastern and Central California HCC at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento and the Southern California HCC at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.

The centers' first task is to certify hospitals' newborn hearing screening programs. California Children's Services-approved hospitals have until December, 2002 to achieve certification and implement their programs. Many California hospitals offer newborn hearing screening to children who may be at risk for hearing loss. UCSF, for example, began testing the hearing of premature and other at-risk infants soon after its pioneering neonatal intensive care nursery was founded in the 1960s, under the leadership of neonatal laboratory director Mureen Schlueter. However, Will said, 50 percent of children who are identified with hearing impairment have no risk factors for hearing loss. In recent years some hospitals - including the Children's Medical Center at UCSF - have voluntarily extended their newborn hearing screening program to include all babies born in the hospital.

California's new program provides reimbursement for all Medi-Cal eligible and uninsured newborns tested in any hospital that has been state certified to perform newborn hearing screening.

Using a statewide data system provided by the Department of Health Services, the Hearing Coordination Centers will track each child born in the participating hospitals to make sure that newborns are offered hearing screening and those who do not pass are followed up with re-screening and diagnostic evaluations, as needed, by the age of three months. The Centers also will provide information to families and their health providers so they can advocate with commercial health plans for appropriate treatment. The Children's Medical Center at UCSF is one of the nation's leading pediatric care centers, and a leader in research and care for children and adults with hearing loss. Research at UCSF contributed to the technology used for non-invasive hearing screening. UCSF newborns have been screened for hearing loss for more than 30 years.

The audiology program at UCSF, directed by Robert Sweetow, PhD, has long been a leader in providing comprehensive services to hearing impaired children and their parents. The program is particularly well known for its research into advanced hearing aid technology.

Basic research in hearing loss at UCSF led to the development of the cochlear implant for severely deaf children and adults, and the identification of genes associated with hereditary hearing impairment. Anil Lalwani, MD is director of pediatric otology and neurotology and of the pediatric program at the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center, part of the UCSF Medical Center.

The toll-free information number for the statewide California Newborn Hearing Screening program is 1-877-388-5301.