Sarah Stevens is a Public Health Consultant working within the National Disease Registration Division at Public Health England. She leads the national congenital anomaly and rare disease registration service (NCARDRS) for England. In the last 3 years coverage of the register has moved from less than half of all births to national coverage. NCARDRS is a much needed resource to support high quality clinical care, commissioning, patients and their families, surveillance and research. Prior to joining PHE Sarah worked in the NHS for over 10 years including as screening lead for the East of England Strategic Health Authority.
On 3 March 2019, over 150 organisations worldwide marked the fifth annual World Birth Defects Day. The goals for the day are to raise awareness across the globe about congenital conditions, look for opportunities to prevent conditions developing, and support antenatal testing where this is a result of an informed choice.