Shanghai hospital on the cutting edge of technology to prevent prenatal issues

The Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai has established the nation's first one-stop birth defect prevention and control platform with diagnosis, screening, genetic data analysis, and genetic information decoding.

The platform also launchs long-distance consultation to offer remote counsel to patients in other provinces.

The platform was included in the exhibition showing the nation's 13th Five-Year (2016-2020) performance showcasing the leading scientific and innovative achievements in Beijing, the hospital announced.

Led by Dr Huang Hefeng, the hospital has created a system of conducting pre-pregnancy screening, prenatal and embryo genetic diagnosis, mutated gene identification, genetic-testing technology, fetal genetic diagnosis and a newborn screening network for birth defect prevention and control.

The hospital is able to block 602 single genetic diseases before pregnancy, and many of these processes are being carried out for the first time in the history of the world.

So far, the hospital has achieved a 100 percent success rate for healthy newborn babies.

Moreover, the team has completed the world's biggest umbilical blood chromosome screening to block intergenerational inheritance of defects due to structural variation in chromosomes. It is the first to carry out hearing tests and deafness-related gene screening for newborns.

In addition, the hospital has led a birth defect prevention alliance with the participation of 83 medical facilities in 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, and set up the first cloud-based diagnosis and treatment platform through remote ultrasonic checks and long-distance group consultation.