Repositorio de tamizaje neonatal, una herramienta para la toma de decisiones en salud pública

Introduction. Neonatal screening is an essential mechanism for the early detection of congenital anomalies within the first hours of birth.Objective. To describe the technical capacity of the laboratories performing neonatal screening tests in Colombia, the timeliness of information reporting, and national coverage based on data from the neonatal screening repository collected during January to September of 2024.Materials and methods. We analyzed 243,536 records nationwide uploaded by health service providers that perform neonatal screening tests on dried blood spot simples nationwide. The records corresponded to births that occurred between January 1st and September 30th, 2024. We evaluated indicators of test coverage and capacity of the national diagnostic network.Results. The screening coverage –calculated from the total number of laboratories that reported information– was 72.2% nationwide. The average time from birth to result reléase is 4.8 days, and only 62.1% of the results were classified as issued “very timely” (≤ 3 days). Conclusions. We suggest that strengthening the quality and timeliness of information reporting will provide real-time data for timely public health decision-making, which will positively impact the quality of life of children born in Colombia.