Early Check: Expanded Screening in Newborns

Early Check provides voluntary screening of newborns for a selected panel of conditions. The study has three main objectives: 1) develop and implement an approach to identify affected infants, 2) address the impact on infants and families who screen positive, and 3) evaluate the Early Check program. The Early Check screening will lead to earlier identification of newborns with rare health conditions in addition to providing important data on the implementation of this model program. Early diagnosis may result in health and development benefits for the newborns. Infants who have newborn screening in North Carolina will be eligible to participate, equating to over 120,000 eligible infants a year. Over 95% of participants are expected to screen negative. Newborns who screen positive and their parents are invited to additional research activities and services. Parents can enroll eligible newborns on the Early Check electronic Research Portal. Screening tests are conducted on residual blood from existing newborn screening dried blood spots. Confirmatory testing is provided free-of-charge for infants who screen positive, and carrier testing is provided to mothers of infants with fragile X. Affected newborns have a physical and developmental evaluation. Their parents have genetic counseling and are invited to participate in surveys and interviews. Ongoing evaluation of the program includes additional parent interviews.

NCT Number	NCT03655223
Lead Sponsor	RTI International Collaborators: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, The John Merck Fund, Duke University, Wake Forest University, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Cure SMA, The National Fragile X Foundation, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Asuragen, Inc., Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc., Muscular Dystrophy Association, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, GeneDx, Illumina, Inc.
Conditions	Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Fragile X Syndrome, Fragile X - Premutation, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Hyperinsulinemic Hypoglycemia, Familial 1, Diabetes Mellitus, Adrenoleukodystrophy, Neonatal, Medium-chain Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency +177 more
Enrollment	30,000 participants
Start Date	2018-10-15
Primary Completion	2026-11-30 (estimated)
Study Completion	2026-12-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-07-01