Use of filter paper for the collection and analysis of human whole blood specimens

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners have been operating the Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program for > 20 y. The program helps participating laboratories to evaluate and improve the quality of their newborn-screening testing efforts by providing quality control dried blood spot materials and proficiency-testing materials for the external evaluation of screening programs. The Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program provides an independent evaluation of filter papers approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the collection of blood for clinical tests. These activities have created a mechanism for the validation of the filter paper blood collection device and the standardization of materials and methods for the analysis of dried blood spots.