Annamarie Saarinen is an American health advocate, economist and co-founder of the Newborn Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that aims to accelerate the pace of early detection and intervention for treatable newborn health conditions.[1]
Saarinen is an adoptee, and she grew up in a small town in southwestern Minnesota.
In 2008, Saarinen's daughter Eve was born with a critical congenital heart defect (CCHD) and survived two heart surgeries in the first months of her life.[2] She launched the country's first multi-hospital newborn heart screening pilot in collaboration with a state department of health.[3]
In 2011, the Newborn Foundation | Coalition lobbied the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to include pulse-oximetry testing for CCHDs in their universal screening recommendations.[4] The screening was endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the March of Dimes.[5] [6] As a result, all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, adopted the Routine Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP).[7] [8]
The BORN project has provided infant pulse oximetry screening training and implementation and a data collection framework for more than 1,200 health workers, expanding its screening cohort to nearly 300,000 newborns across 200 delivery sites in 10 low- and middle-income countries. It was also among the first formal public/private sector commitments to reduce preventable newborn mortality as part of the UN Secretary General's Every Woman, Every Child initiative.[9] The BORN Project was selected to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which address human rights, health equity and innovation.[10] [11] [12] [13]
In 2016, Saarinen was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration to the federal Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children (ACHDNC).[14]