UK NSC blood spot task group (BSTG)
The blood spot task group (BSTG) has been set up to identify practical and innovative approaches to help researchers and others develop evidence that can help the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) make good recommendations.
Role of the group
Reviewing the case for new screening for conditions using the newborn blood spot is difficult because many are very rare diseases where good quality evidence is lacking.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) blood spot task group (BSTG) has been set up to identify practical and innovative approaches to help researchers and others develop evidence that could help the UK NSC make robust recommendations about new or modified screening programmes within the constraints of limited evidence bases.
The BSTG will meet at least 3 times per year. Updates on the BSTG work, as well as its outputs, will be provided at the UK NSC’s fetal, maternal and child health (FMCH) meetings. These are held 3 times a year. The UK NSC will be updated via the FMCH chair’s report to the UK NSC meetings. These are also held 3 times a year.
The UK NSC secretariat will provide technical and administrative support to the BSTG. Some work outside regular meetings might be required to take some outputs forward.
The BSTG will interact with the UK NSC’s research and methodology group (RMG), particularly in relation to outputs that focus more on methodology and providing guidance. The interaction may be obtaining feedback from the chair of the RMG on relevant BSTG outputs, but it would not necessarily need to involve the entire RMG. The aim of this approach is to strike a balance between ensuring consistency of advice and avoiding making the process too time consuming and bureaucratic.
See BSTG terms of reference for more information.
Membership
The BSTG is chaired by child health consultant Dr David Elliman. It brings together a wealth of expertise in newborn screening, including paediatricians, academics (including researchers, methodologists, and health economists), ethicists, quality assurance (QA) professionals, geneticists, and patient and public voice (PPV) representatives.
The BSTG consists of core group members plus representation from the health departments of the four 4 UK countries and the Republic of Ireland.
Meetings
The BSTG met for the first time on 29 April 2022.
BSTG discussions feed into policy development and are therefore confidential. However, the BSTG publishes summary notes from each meeting so they can be shared more widely for input and discussion by interested stakeholders.
Further information
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