Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The National Institutes of Health on Tuesday launched a new initiative to reduce the rate of stillbirths in the United States.
The NIH said more than 60% of the nearly 24,000 annual U.S. stillbirth cases "remain unexplained" as it unveiled a new federal Stillbirth Research Consortium. The consortium is backed by five American health institutions and is designed to reduce the number of preventable U.S. stillbirths.
"This consortium will provide an integrated, collaborative program to support cutting edge research to identify the root causes of stillbirth and inform evidence-based strategies to address stillbirth risks," according to Dr. Alison Cernich, acting director of NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
On Tuesday, NIH said the agency will fund the consortium in a $37 million infusion of federal money for a five-year period with other possible streams of federal funding via HHS to develop tools, devices and other technologies that have the potential to "affect diagnosis and prevention efforts."
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