¹ Regional Health Care Administration and City Executive Committee
² Rivne OMNI-Net and Regional Diagnostic Center
³ Ukraine OMNI-Net and University of South Alabama

Background: Rivne OMNI-Net Center, established in 1999, arose as a component of a medical genetics team offering clinical and prenatal services to the Rivne oblast (province). In 2005, reports to EUROCAT of population birth defects data began and nearly 45% of pregnant women underwent ultrasonographic fetal examinations. In 2007, a pilot study to assess alterations of fetal developmental markers in women who consumed alcohol began in partnership with two U.S. university teams funded by the National Institutes of Health. In 2008, a decree by the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and financial support by Oblast authorities provided the center with additional state-of-the-art ultrasonography equipment and mandated that the center reach all pregnant women at high risk and provide at least one examination to all pregnant women between 18 and 22 weeks gestation.

Method: The upgraded facilities and legal standing of the prenatal diagnosis component of the Rivne OMNI-Net and Rivne Regional Diagnostic Center call for an upgraded data collection system to become a population-based Rivne pregnancy register linked with the existing birth defects surveillance and neonatal registry databases, among others.

Results: Ongoing OMNI-Net surveys (see companion abstract by E.Y. Patskun, et al.) are defining the data elements and offer field experience needed to design an optimal pregnancy population registry attuned to the socio-demographic realities in Ukraine.

Conclusions: Investment in the development of a neonatal, birth defects and related programs have garnered the official and public support needed to formulate an integrated health care and data collection system from pre-conception to early interventions for infants and children in Rivne. (See companion abstract by Bohatyrchuk-Kryvko, et al.).

• The report presentation in pdf format (Acrobat Reader), 564 Kb