Q:  What is the DSHPSHWA?

The Directors of Speech and Hearing Programs in State Health and Welfare Agencies (DSHPSHWA) was established in 1964 to promote awareness about communication disorders and the continued development of public health programs for the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. Today, the organization is active in national maternal and child health issues and includes members from nearly every state. Starting in the 1980s DSHPSHWA became involved with newborn hearing screening programs and through collaboration with the CDC a list of EHDI data items or elements were agreed upon in 1999. This list of data items has been used by DSHPSHWA to develop a survey that is sent annually to representatives in state and territory EHDI programs. Data from the annual DSHPSHWA surveys are available on the EHDI website: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ehdi/dips.htm 

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Q:  How many states have mandated newborn hearing screening as well as those screening without a mandate?

At present, we know of 37 states (listed below) that have some form of legislation enacted that relates to EHDI. The specific requirements of the legislation vary by state, and the screening requirements range from requiring screening of only infants born in hospitals with > 50 births, to 85% of births, to all babies.

It should be noted that we do not know how many states may have bills awaiting review in their legislature. If you want further information on state EHDI legislation please refer to the NCHAM site: http://www.infanthearing.org/legislative/index.html  and the National Conference of State Legislature's, Genetics
Legislation Database Home Page: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/geneticsDB.cfm

The 37 states that have some form of EHDI legislation are: AR, CO, FL, GA, HI, IA, IL, KY, LA, MA, ME, MO, NJ, NC, OK, OR, RI, UT, WI, WY, CA, CT, IN, KS, MD, MS, MT, NE, NM, NY, NV, OH, PA, SC, TX, VA, WV. 

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Q:  What is the process for updating the state information in the CDC EHDI State Profile?

To view information in the state profile, go to: http://www2a.cdc.gov/ncbddd/EHDI/sp/  States that are interested in updating information for their own state need to have their account information, which can be obtained by emailing ehdiprofile@cdc.gov.  After logging in and changing their information, states must wait up to 2-3 business days for the CDC to review and approve the changes before the new information will appear on the state profile web site. For more detailed instructions, please go to: http://www2a.cdc.gov/ncbddd/EHDI/sp/help.asp. The state profile fact sheet also contains general information about the web site: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ehdi/documents/ehdiprofile.pdf.

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Q:  What is the process for updating state information on the CDC EHDI website?

To update your state’s information, please send a detailed email with updates to ehdi@cdc.gov
 

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Sorry, we can't give you medical advice. Please talk with your doctor for questions about yourself or your family. For other information, please contact ehdi@cdc.gov 

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Date: September 1, 2006
Content source: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities