The Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) and Sudden Death in the Young (SDY) Case Registry: Preventing SUID and SDY in Virginia - The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in the Virginia Department of Health, part of the Commonwealth of Virginia requests funding through Core Component A (SUID) and Optional Expanded Component B (SDY) and Optional Component C (Prevention). Virginia’s SUID/SDY Case Registry centers on four goals: Goal 1. Increase in high-quality, timely data for SUID/SDY, including information on disparities and SDOH, for program improvement and public health purposes. A strong SUID/SDY Case Registry in Virginia will require timely case identification; complete record collection on the decedent child or youth with regard to death investigations, medical histories, and other system involvements; multidisciplinary review by a child death review team in all SUID/SDY cases; clinical review of medical history by specialists that include pediatric forensic pathology, neurology, and cardiology; data entry into databases provided by the National Center for the Review and Prevention of Child Deaths’ Case Reporting System; and a data quality assurance process to evaluate timeliness and completion. Goal 2: Increase in the number of implemented policies and practices to standardize and reduce inequity in investigation practices, including review of medical records, scene investigation and autopsies. Driving policy is a standard practice within the OCME and as part of this work in its current iteration. Using data collected from the medical records, autopsy, and other files collected during the review process registry staff will be able to identify opportunities for improvement during the case review process, including during review team meetings. By nature, the OCME is inclusive, but there is always room for improvement, especially with our outside partners. Under this goal, the SUID/SDY staff will strive to partner and support with agencies to drive change where needed. Goal 3: Increase opportunities for networking, cooperation, and data sharing with communities disproportionately impacted by sleep-related infant deaths. Partnering with other agencies such as Minus 9 to 5, Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative, and the state maternal and child fatality review teams allows for networking, data sharing, and support to address sleep-related infant deaths. In addition, all the agencies are focused on addressing equity and SDOHs in their jurisdictions or work. Goal 4: Increase in implementation of community participatory, data-driven prevention strategies for disproportionately impacted communities. The OCME by nature is not a programmatic entity and this would be a new area of work. Despite not currently being a programmatic agency, the OCME does support the implementation of strategies through data analysis, data dissemination, and working with agencies where there are targeted recommendations from the review or data analysis process. Under this goal, we plan to partner with Minus 9 to 5, local maternal and child fatality review teams, and the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative to implement new prevention efforts or enhance their current strategies.
