The implementation of newborn cardiac screening in developing regions: Evaluating a training program in rural China

Although congenital heart defects are the most common birth defects, occurring in nearly 1 in 100 births, many developing regions do not practice proper newborn cardiac screening, which uses pulse oximeter and stethoscope. We therefore designed and implemented an on-site training program of newborn cardiac screening for obstetric personnel in rural Yunnan province, China. The aims of this study were to evaluate whether the training improved trainees' knowledge on newborn cardiac screening and resulted in higher newborn cardiac screening rates. The training program, which started in July 2015 and lasted through 2016, trained 2,175 obstetric doctors and nurses from 104 rural hospitals. The trainees demonstrated significant knowledge improvement on the knowledge of cardiac screening. Additionally, before June 2016, the trained personnel performed proper cardiac screening on 44,614 (93.6%) newborn babies. Given the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of this program in Yunnan, we recommend similar programs be implemented in other developing areas.