PROCEEDINGS OF WORKSHOP ON GUIDELINES FOR SCENE INVESTIGATION OF SUDDEN UNEXPLAINED INFANT DEATHS - JULY 12-13, 1993

The 1992 Senate Report #102-104 and House Report #102-12, recommended that the Interagency Panel on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) revi ew and establish an updated standard death scene investigation protoco l for scene investigation of unexplained infant deaths. As a result of the recommendation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Reproductive Health (DRH), and the National Institut e for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) organized a workshop entitled ''Workshop on Guidelines for Scene Investigation of Sudden Un explained Infant Deaths,'' which was held in Rockville, Maryland, on J uly 12-13, 1993. This article outlines the proceedings of the workshop . The goal of the workshop was to gather information and ideas that co uld be used to establish guidelines which could be useful in developin g a model death scene investigation protocol. It was not a goal of thi s workshop to produce a specific protocol during the workshop. The wor kshop was successful in generating a variety of information and ideas concerning the desirable attributes of a protocol including essential items of data, identification of certain training needs, specification of procedures for data collection, reporting, and quality assurance, and proposed strategies for implementation. This information can now b e considered by the HHS Interagency SIDS Panel to develop specific gui delines for developing a standard scene investigation protocol for sud den unexplained infant deaths.