The funding, allocated to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aims to establish more accurate normal ranges for children’s medical results.Â
The House Committee on Appropriations approved the Fiscal Year 2027 Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and Related Agencies Bill, which includes $5 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve pediatric reference intervals.
According to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine, the development of better pediatric reference intervals is essential for children to receive accurate diagnoses and effective care. Reference intervals are the range of normal test values expected in a healthy child. When a test result falls outside of the reference interval, it alerts a pediatrician that a child might have a condition requiring medical intervention.
The ADLM states that limited access to samples from healthy children has significantly hindered the establishment of accurate pediatric reference intervals. While reference intervals for adults are generally reliable, there is currently inconsistency in the ranges provided for young patients, which can lead to incorrect diagnoses and treatments.
“We would like to thank the House Committee on Appropriations for including this essential funding in the FY2027 Labor, HHS, Education, and Related Agencies budget,” says Paul J Jannetto, PhD, president of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine, in a release. “The development of better pediatric reference intervals will ultimately lead to the improvement of testing provided to our nation’s youngest and most vulnerable population. Federal involvement plays a crucial role in advancing this initiative.”
The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine has led a coalition of 54 healthcare groups, including the Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, to urge Congress to fund this initiative. This year, the association discussed the need for better pediatric reference intervals during a congressional briefing and visited individual congressional offices to address the issue.
Now that the funding has been included in the House bill, the association says it will advocate for Congress to include the $5 million in the final budget package.
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