· Nicole Belles · In The News
Every Florida Child Deserves a Genetic Head Start
Florida's 2025 childhood-health laws are a meaningful start—but newborns and student athletes aren't the only kids who benefit from genetic insight. The case for making pediatric genetic screening available to every child as preventive medicine.
The State of Florida is at the forefront of childhood preventive screening innovation. In 2025, the Florida legislature passed two meaningful pieces of legislation to keep kids healthy: Florida’s Sunshine Genetics Act and the Florida Second Chance Act.
Florida’s Sunshine Genetics Act is a significant step toward funding genetic screening for children. The Florida Second Chance Act, requires high school student athletes to complete at least one electrocardiogram (EKG) before they can participate in athletic competition, starting in the academic year 2026-2027.
These laws are a testament to the State’s focus on childhood health, however, there is more that can be done. The Sunshine Genetics Act only funds genetic screening for newborns and many clinically significant conditions are not included in the Sunshine panel.
The Second Chance Act addresses sudden cardiac death, the leading cause of death in athletes during sports participation. It affects children by first spiking in early childhood and then again in adolescence. An EKG can screen for risk factors for sudden cardiac death including detecting signs of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or long QT syndrome. However, EKGs do not detect genetic abnormalities including familial hypercholesterolemia and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and over 100 other cardiac conditions.
The American Heart Association does not recommend routine EKG screening for pre-clearance of sports participation. This is because routine EKG screening of healthy pediatric patients with no personal or family history of cardiac disease has demonstrated a high false positive rate and has not been found to reduce mortality. It can also lead to unnecessary secondary testing. Additionally, a child with a false positive would often require genetic screening for confirmation of a genetic heart condition.
These two existing policies are commendable and will benefit many children in Florida, but too many are being left out. Every child should have access to pediatric genetic screening as preventive medicine, to detect genetic conditions that are actionable in childhood. This is Dr. Ann Wu’s personal mission and why she founded GeneSprout. Dr. Wu brings scientific research that families can trust to that mission. She spent more than two decades as a pediatrician, researcher and genomics leader at Harvard Medical School. Her work in genomic medicine and pediatric research produced over 200 scientific publications and helped advance understanding of how genetics can identify disease risk earlier in childhood.
GeneSprout provides screening for over 2,000 actionable genetic conditions for children of all ages so more families and pediatricians can act before developmental, neurologic, metabolic, cardiac, or immune issues become crises. The majority of families who screen with GeneSprout receive a clear, low-risk result and peace of mind. Knowing a child’s genetic baseline early means parents can stop wondering and simply enjoy watching them grow with the reassurance that they chose the most proactive approach available.
For children who have increased genetic risk, GeneSprout’s care team guides and supports the family. GeneSprout’s health navigation experts have walked the genetic diagnostic path themselves: as pediatricians, as researchers and as parents. They understand the questions families ask and the emotions that come with them. Every result includes next steps for families including conditions identified, treatment strategies, connections to medical experts and more.
GeneSprout’s genetic screening solutions are complementary to Florida’s two pieces of legislation because children of all ages are eligible, not just newborns or high school students. While Florida develops the infrastructure for the implementation of the Sunshine Genetics Act, parents giving birth can access GeneSprout now. Additionally, families who opt-in to Florida’s newborn genetic screening program can choose GeneSprout for siblings, to evaluate a broader number of conditions, and for additional condition navigation support.
Florida has already recognized the power of genetics through the Sunshine Genetics Act. Now Florida has an opportunity to lead again by expanding access to early pediatric genetic screening through public-private innovation. We all need to do everything we can to protect the health of the next generation of children. Pediatric genetic screening identifies risks earlier, connects families to answers faster and helps children receive the right care as early as possible.
About the author Nicole Belles lives in Key West, FL and is the Chief Product Officer at GeneSprout. She is a healthcare executive and product leader with more than 20 years of experience supporting healthcare payer strategies and improving outcomes across the healthcare industry.
Photo by Derek Thomson on Unsplash