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Description
NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Screening) is widely accepted as an advanced method in prenatal screening with high validity for assessing the risks for foetal severe chromosomal diseases, like trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). The global uptake of NIPT method has been rapid and many professional organisations in more than 60 countries have already recommended to include NIPT as part of routine pregnancy monitoring, including Estonian Gynaecologists’ Society. However, due to the higher cost of the NIPT test as compared to traditional screening, it is not reimbursed nationally in all countries and is not available to everyone, thus creating inequalities in access to healthcare services. Thus, with the exception of Belgium, Netherlands and Estonia, NIPT is generally not included to the national health insurance plans.
The main goal of the project is to develop the internationally scalable certified product NIPTIFY+ test, which will be able to discover not only foetal chromosomal disorders, but also maternal genetic-based health conditions, like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and premature birth. All these maternal diseases can be prognosed based on maternal genetic predisposition towards these diseases and can be prevented with the right medical care and life-style recommendations. Thus, NIPTIFY+ helps to avoid several procedures and prevents the appearance of the diseases by early risk estimation. The main objective will be achieved by development of internationally scalable product with the full product and service chain containing building blocks to be provided fully or partly by CCHT together with local health care providers.