Welcome to ISNS

Welcome to the website of the International Society for Neonatal Screening (ISNS).
This society is aiming to advance screening for neonatal and infant sicknesses and disorders, worldwide. Please read its vision and mission, respectively.
ISNS has around 500 members in more than 70 different countries. Most members have a professional (para)medical background but a few are involved in parents or patients advocacy groups.
For more information about ISNS visit the ISNS-Info section (see here).
ISNS welcomes new members who have demonstrated an active interest in neonatal screening.

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News for Members

If you paid your membership dues and still do not receive the ISNS Newsletter please notify the ISNS Office.

If you change your email address please notify the ISNS Office.

 

 

Hot topics for members

2024 Membership renewal
A new year, time to consider the status of your ISNS membership.
1.How do you know if you need to renew? Quite easy! Please log in with your username (=email address) and password.
a.If you see the payment page you can opt to pay for 2024, or 2024+2025, or 2024+2025+2026.
Paying for multiple years entitles you to a discount of some 8-9% and in addition, it is easier for the ISNS Office.
Please note that we do not send a payment confirmation or receipt of money UNLESS you request it by sending an email to office-manager@isns-neoscreening.org

b. If you do NOT see the payment page it means that you already paid for 2024 (and perhaps also for later years). In that case you do not have to take any action.

2.Is your account still up to date?
Please log in and check the profile by clicking on the icon at the far right hand side of the top line. An essential item is a correct email address. If you find that the ISNS database has an error, please correct it and send an email to office-manager@isns-neoscreening.org as well.

  1. Any question, remark, suggestion?
    Send an email to office-manager@isns-neoscreening.org

2023 ISNS Awards recipients
The recipient of the 2023 ISNS/Revvity Guthrie Award is Dr Ralph Fingerhut, Weiden, Germany.
The recipient of the 2023 ISNS/Bio-Rad Dussault Medal is Dr Kristin Kernohan, Ottawa (ON), Canada.

ISNS congratulates them!
Biosketches of these colleagues will be published shortly.

NBS for SMA great success!
ISNS organised a virtual conference on NBS for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, 12-13 December, 2023.
Over 150 participants from all over the world logged in, some during late evening or very early morning hours. They have been sent links to the presentations for later reviewing.
The presenters have been invited to submit papers to a special edition of the International Journal of Neonatal Screening.

ISNS regards these virtual one-topic conferences as a great way to reach a large number of interested colleagues in a relatively easy way since no long distance travel is needed. They are a nice supplement to the traditional in-person conferences. Plans for a subsequent virtual conference are in the making!

Updated worldwide overview on NBS - Sept 2023
Please see here some slides based on info collected from various sources and (industrial) partners.

PKU blog by Kevin Alexander
About Kevin Alexander (in his own words)

I'm an adult living with PKU. I'm also a professional videographer, and since 2012 I've been traveling the world as a PKU and newborn screening advocate. I'm a volunteer for the National PKU Alliance, Vice President of the Louisiana Metabolic Disorders Coaltion, and a member of the International Society of Neonatal Screening.
Please follow this link: https://pkujournal.com/

New

Kevin has released a preview episode, a look at what lies ahead on this podcast. Below are links to the podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Two historic, very interesting, videos on PKU now available!
The Laboratory of Newborn Screening of Catalonia from Hospital Clínic of Barcelona (Spain), via Dr Ana Argudo-Ramírez,  kindly made available to ISNS two historic videos.
The first one shows the original bacterial inhibition assay method for PKU, galactosemia etc. using the Phillips Punch Index Machine. This video was acquired and brought to Barcelona in 1968 by Prof. Juan Sabaté Tobella who was doing a training in the laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he learned the Guthrie method with Dr. Vivian Shi, director of the laboratory.

The second one concerns a TV show about PKU presented by Dr. Leonard Taitz, possibly made in the '80s.

If the videos will not open in your usual webbrowser please try another one.

Please see
https://aecom.com.es/fenilalanina-medir-metodo-dr-guthrie/
and
https://aecom.com.es/pku-progrrama-tv/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot topics for members

ISNS Travel grants for the APHL/ISNS conference in Sacramento
ISNS has a few possibilities for financial support of its members to travel to ISNS-endorsed or -co-organised conferences. The membership is informed via the Newsletter. Applicants need to fill in a form and the ISNS Executive decides on the amount of the grant. One of the conditions is that the awardee supplies a written report on his/her learning experiences.

For the recent APHL/ISNS conference in Sacramento three applications were received and honoured: Dr Rachel Carling (UK),  Dr Bijaya Mishra (Nepal), and Dr Layzon da Silva (Brazil). Please find their reports by clicking on their name.

 

International Journal of Neonatal Screening (IJNS)
IJNS is the official journal of the International Society for Neonatal Screening (ISNS). IJNS is also the official journal of the German Society for Neonatal Screening (DGNS), the Japanese Society for Neonatal Screening (JSNS), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)–Newborn Screening & Genetics Program and the UK Newborn Screening Laboratory Network (UKNSLN).
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/IJNS/about

In addition:
Open Access: free for readers, with article processing charges (APC)
paid by authors or their institutions.
High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science), PubMed,
PMC, Embase, and other databases.
Impact factor 3.5
Journal Rank: CiteScore 3.2  - Q2 (Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health)
Case reports: this journal publishes a section with well prepared case
reports.
Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision
provided to authors approximately 21.2 days after submission; acceptance
to publication is undertaken in 6.7 days (median values for papers
published in this journal in the first half of 2022).

Please consider IJNS for your next manuscript submission!!! ISNS members receive a 20% discount of the publication cost by indicating the ISNS membership in the cover letter.

IJNS received impact factor of 3.5
In June 2023 we celebrated with managing editors of International Journal of Neonatal Screening since November 2018 Neil (Xin) Ding and Patricia Csegesi and founding editor in chief Ralph Fingerhut receiving our first Impact Factor of...3.5!! A huge accomplishment of our managing editors at MDPI of the past and present, associate editors/editorial team, editorial board, reviewers, our readership and the membership of ISNS and affiliated organisations that have supported us, e.g. APHL - Association of Public Health Laboratories. Having our impact factor may remove a final hurdle for authors for which publishing in an IF-holding journal is mandated by their institutions. Additionally, the sheer level of 3.5 (!-Citation score 5.0) should be a stimulus to use IJNS as a platform for work within the scope of our journal, as it warrants selection of high quality manuscripts, a dedicated readership and recognition through citation.

Interesting article on a comparison of sampling devices

A paper has recently come out comparing devices for superior accuracy in heelprick and fingerprick blood testing versus the traditional dried bloodspot card.  The devices would be for IEM disorder monitoring rather than newborn screening itself.  PKU monitoring is evaluated in the paper.

Please see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0009898122012566.

 

Worldwide members

The location of members worldwide as of Jan. 1, 2022, is shown in the picture on the right. Countries/states with at least one member are shown in blue, others in grey.

How do I become a member?

Please read this  and subsequently click on the button Member application.

Why should I join as a member?

As a member you are entitled to see the privileged pages containing specific news items, a monthly neonatal screening literature service and a discount to ISNS-related conferences. Under certain conditions you may apply for travel grants to such conferences. Having access to the on line membership directory you have easier access to other members sharing specific interests.

ISNS Journal

The ISNS supervises a journal, the International Journal of Neonatal Screening, published by MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
For information, please follow this link.
Members are stimulated to use this journal for their publications.