Home » Home » Interim Surgeon General Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos Speaks at Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) Workshop in Washington D.C.
Interim Surgeon General Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos Speaks at Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) Workshop in Washington D.C.
Workshop “Achieving a Just Response to Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths.”
Brevard County native, Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos (pictured), the Interim Surgeon General and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy, recently spoke at the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at a workshop in Washington, DC titled “Achieving a Just Response to Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths.” To read the full report, CLICK HERE.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – On April 21, 2026, the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Washington, DC titled “Achieving a Just Response to Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths.”
Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) denotes the death of an apparently healthy child under the age of one from undetermined causes.
It is an umbrella term applied to the sudden death of an infant at the outset of an investigation, prior to the final certification of causes that include sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), death from unknown or unexplained causes, and death from accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (ASSB).
COORDINATING AND IMPROVING RESPONSES TO INFANT DEATH
“All professionals involved in the response to SUID must balance compassion and investigatory rigor. These dual responsibilities are reflected in the work of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, the Interim Surgeon General and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy. Agencies across HHS play critical and complementary roles. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors the scope and circumstances of deaths through national surveillance systems and supports standardized approaches to death investigations. Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) seeks to better understand the biological and environmental factors that contribute to SUID. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) supports state- and community-based systems, including prevention programs, that translate knowledge into action. “Together, these efforts form a coordinated, federal approach, one that connects data and science and practice in a shared effort to reduce the tragedies and to ensure that each investigation is conducted with both rigor and the care the circumstances demand.”
To read the full report, CLICK HERE.
