A new electronic tool that will put family medical history at doctors’ fingertips – alerting them to a patient’s increased risk for birth defects or pregnancy complications - will be developed through a three-year cooperative agreement with a $1.2 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, Genetic Services Branch.

The National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG) will lead the project and will work with the March of Dimes, the Genetic Alliance, and the Newton Wellesley Hospital of Partners Healthcare to adapt or create a new tool doctors can use to gather a woman’s consistent family history information and analyze it immediately to improve patient care.

“Taking a patient’s family health history is an important way for doctors and other health care providers to evaluate the risk of common conditions such as heart disease or premature birth,” said Joseph McInerney, executive director of NCHPEG. “With this grant, we can improve how prenatal providers gather and use family health history to improve the health of their patients.”

“This project allows us to use state-of-the-art technology and apply a sophisticated understanding of genomics and family history to give more Americans a healthy start in life,” said Alan R. Fleischman, MD, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes. “We hope doctors will use this new family health history tool to identify women at risk for having preterm labor or an infant with a birth defect. It will give women the information they need to improve their health and that of their babies.”

Patients in doctors’ offices will fill out a standardized family history questionnaire using a computerized tablet, instead of paper and Open. The information will be analyzed electronically, and the tool will provide red flags and recommendations for health care providers based on current professional guidelines. Providers may be prompted to ask more questions or to send a woman to a genetic specialist.

The tool also will encourage health care providers to update and use family history data throughout the lifespan of any female patient. The long-term goal is for the family history information to be combined with the patient’s other medical information into an electronic health record (EHR). The proposed health history tool will focus on existing prenatal and women’s health topics, including newborn screening, and will be compatible

with the U.S. Surgeon General’s family history tool, the “My Family Health Portrait” Web-enabled program.

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