Coalition for Access to Prenatal Screening Announces Clinical Advisory Board

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Access to Prenatal Screening (CAPS) announced today that it has assembled a clinical advisory board to advise the coalition on medical and policy issues to help improve access to cell-free DNA (cfDNA)-based noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for all pregnant women. Established in January 2017, CAPS is comprised of: Illumina, Inc. ILMN; Counsyl, Inc.; Progenity, Inc.; Natera, Inc. NTRA; and LabCorp® LH through its Integrated Genetics specialty laboratory.

Under the leadership of the clinical advisory board chairman Arnold W. Cohen, MD, Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Einstein Healthcare Network, the CAPS Clinical Advisory Board also includes:

• Anthony R. Gregg, MD, MBA, FACOG, FACMG, B. L. Stalnaker Professor Chief, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Director, Obstetrics UF Health University of Florida College of Medicine
• Aleksandar Rajkovic, MD, PhD, Marcus Allen Hogge Chair in Reproductive Sciences, Director of Medical Genetics, Medical Director of Pittsburgh Clinical Genomics Laboratory, Magee Women's Research Institute and Foundation, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
• Annelise Skor Swigert, MD, FACOG, Executive Partner at Southdale Obstetrics and Gynecology; Chief Medical Officer, Premier ObGyn Minnesota
• Thomas Westover, MD, FACOG, Vice Chair of the New Jersey Section of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Co-Chair of the New Jersey Hospital Association, Perinatal Safety Collaborative; Assistant Professor, Maternal Fetal Medicine & ObGyn, Cooper Medical School, Rowan University
• Jennifer Hoskovec, MS, CGC, Director, Prenatal Genetic Counseling Services, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, McGovern Medical School, UTHealth
• Daniel S. Grosu, MD, MBA, Founder of GENOPRAXIS, LLC and former Chief Medical Officer of Sequenom and Illumina

The clinical advisory board members will provide CAPS with the benefit of their respective clinical experience, access to educational resources and assistance in the development of evidence-based scientific studies in support of cfDNA screening. Members of the clinical advisory board may also represent CAPS at professional societies and meetings.

"It's my pleasure to welcome my esteemed colleagues as advisors to CAPS," said Cohen. "We look forward to working with the CAPS member companies to provide reliable and useful information about cfDNA-based NIPT to patients, healthcare providers, and public and private insurers."

About CAPS
The Coalition for Access to Prenatal Screening (CAPS) is a collaborative alliance of five leading genetic testing companies in the United States that seeks to improve access to state-of-the-art prenatal screening using cell-free DNA (cfDNA)-based noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for all pregnant women who choose to pursue aneuploidy screening – regardless of their risk factors, income, age or geographic location. CAPS encourages appropriate reimbursement coverage policy changes for this medically-actionable testing service, which has the potential to improve personalized patient care. For more information on CAPS, please click here.

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SOURCE Coalition for Access to Prenatal Screening (CAPS)