Figure 5.

Proof-of-concept future harmonization workflow using external calibration. Harmonizing newborn screening (NBS) data would benefit from the use of external calibrators to increase result accuracy, which would aid comparability of results across laboratories and refining or establishing of disease ranges. The dried blood spot (DBS) calibrators would be distributed to participating laboratories and analyzed alongside clinical samples. Ideally the certified values would reflect the true value of metabolites in the calibrators, thus, potentially correcting for extraction and recovery inefficiencies of the participating laboratories. This de-identified data could be uploaded to a secure web portal to facilitate accurate result comparability across all laboratories.