Erik Sistermans Impact Award in Health

Erik Sistermans receives an Impact Award for the continued development and implementation of the NIPT (Non-Invasive Prenatal Test). The NIPT offers pregnant women a more reliable and safer alternative for early detection of chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus than before. NIPT has therefore made its predecessor, the so-called combination test, completely redundant.

Sistermans: “That combination test provided odds as if you were going to the casino for a prenatal test. The NIPT almost always gives a clear result right away.’ Sistermans is now using the science gained in developing the NIPT to further develop the test into a broad test for a healthy pregnancy: ‘For example, in the near future we will be able to predict preeclampsia, and viral infections that can be dangerous for both mother and child. Early detection means that we can then treat these during pregnancy’.

The social impact of widely offering the NIPT was great, an ethical debate ensued. Around 2014, a few groups were really very much against it. While the decision to make prenatal screening possible had long been made. Sistermans: “We haven’t changed anything about that with the whole NIPT. The only thing we changed was that women now got a good test instead of a bad test. But we did get that ethical debate, which just kind of restarted it.’