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NIPT-AID: NavIgating Prenatal Testing - Advancing Informed Decision-making

Award Number: K99HD121925
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/01/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2028

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NIPT-AID: NavIgating Prenatal Testing - Advancing Informed Decision-making - PROJECT SUMMARY Nearly four million women receive prenatal care each year in the United States. Prenatal cell-free DNA (cfDNA) screening has revolutionized the prenatal care landscape since its introduction into clinical practice in 2011. Its superior sensitivity and specificity for detecting common fetal aneuploidies, coupled with the simplicity of the procedure, has led to rapid and widespread uptake. Updated 2020 guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommend this screening test as a first-line option in routine prenatal care for all pregnant patients regardless of maternal age or baseline risk. However, the rapid diffusion of prenatal cfDNA screening has raised concerns that its routinization may erode informed choice for pregnant women. Though professional guidelines emphasize the importance of prescreen counseling to facilitate informed, shared decision-making, pregnant patients are generally dissatisfied with their counseling experiences. Prenatal care providers, in turn, report feeling ill-equipped to discuss the complexities of prenatal cfDNA screening. Moreover, expert opinion-based guidelines rarely incorporate the decisional needs and preferences of pregnant women, and it is often infeasible for providers to cover all possible counseling topics due to time constraints. To address these challenges, the overall goal of my project—NIPT-AID: NavIgating Prenatal Testing – Advancing Informed Decision-making—is to develop and evaluate a decision support tool that facilitates informed, shared decision-making to support informed choices about prenatal cfDNA screening. Specifically, my project aims to: 1) assess current prenatal cfDNA prescreen counseling practices and the decision-making process to evaluate which decisional needs are being met and which remain unmet from the perspectives of both providers and pregnant patients; 2) identify pregnant women’s priorities in addressing decisional needs to facilitate informed, shared decision-making about prenatal cfDNA screening; and 3) develop and pilot a decision support tool to improve decision-making about prenatal cfDNA screening. This research is significant because it will empower pregnant women to make informed choices. Further, this award will build on my strong foundation in evaluating population-level decision-making by expanding my skills as a decision scientist to better inform individual-level decisions and more directly influence clinical care. Through training in qualitative research methods, psychology of shared decision-making, and healthcare intervention development and evaluation, I will enhance my ability to design and evaluate patient-centered tools. Combined with the support from my interdisciplinary mentorship team, my proposed research and training will enable my successful transition to independence and lay the groundwork for my research program focused on improving decision-making—from individual-level clinical encounters to population-level policy—to guide the responsible use of emerging genomic technologies and promote the health and well-being of children and families.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $126,881 )
2026	2026	HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE, INC.	1 WELLNESS WAY	CANTON	MA	02021	NORFOLK	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	1	8/28/2026	NEW	$126,881
														Subtotal = $126,881

Grand Total All Awards = $126,881

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NIPT-AID: NavIgating Prenatal Testing - Advancing Informed Decision-making

Award Number: K99HD121925

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 09/01/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2028

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