Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and Sudden Death in the Young Program - The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health Services, Bureau of Population Health and Community Services, Maternal and Child Health Section (MCH), in partnership with the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), seeks to continue the work of its Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) and Sudden Death in the Young (SDY) Registry. Its purpose is to improve surveillance systems to monitor incidence and characteristics of SUID and SDY following the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention Protocols. The SUID/SDY Program will help the state understand incidence, trends, and characteristics of SUID and SDY, building on its success of identifying cases, compiling case information, and conducting its SUID and SDY multidisciplinary review meetings. With parental consent, autopsy specimens on cases meeting Centers for Disease Control SDY criteria will be sent by the OCME to a national biorepository for inclusion in the National Institute of Health’s supported research. The outcome of the SUID/SDY Program is to produce high quality, complete, timely surveillance data to improve investigations, identify risk factors, and inform policy, prevention and health promotion strategies and activities aimed at reducing infant and child deaths. Participation in the national research activities will contribute to better identification of the incidence and risk factors of SDY deaths, leading to data driven strategies, earlier identification of risk factors, and prevention efforts. The New Hampshire SUID/SDY Program, consists of the Program Coordinator and Outreach Coordinator, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s Data Clerk and Chief Forensic Investigator, who will assure that suspected SUID and SDY deaths are identified, autopsied, and reviewed by a multidisciplinary review group following grant protocol. The state’s Child Fatality Review Committee members comprise the Legislative oversight of the SUID and SDY Review Group. The program staff will assure that case data entry into the Data Coordinating Center of the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention case registry, analysis, follow up, and quality assurance is carried out, and that all project activities meet the SUID and SDY Registry Project’s identified outcomes and timeframes.
