Maternal Child Screening Committee

Screening is an important practice in the maternal – child population aimed at early identification of significant health risks to allow early intervention, treatment where available,  and improved outcomes.  Many health issues and diseases targeted by screening span the preconception to late childhood spectrum, optimally involving an integrated approach to ensure recommendations regarding policy are sound and consistent, and that the operation of the screening programs corresponds to the highest possible standards of effectiveness and efficiency.

Prenatal Screening (currently multiple marker screening for Trisomy 21, 18 and Neural Tube Defects) and Newborn Screening (currently dried blood spot based screening for 28 diseases) are two essential services offered to pregnant women and their newborns throughout Ontario. Although the details of the operation of each program may differ, the over-arching principles of screening apply to all.

The Maternal/Child Screening Committee will make recommendations to the Provincial Council on Maternal and Child Health (PCMCH) and to BORN Ontario to ensure that:

• the scope and operation of prenatal, newborn and childhood screening in Ontario meet the changing needs of the people of the province;

• consistent general principles of screening, including standards of implementation and evaluation, are applied to all aspects of prenatal, newborn and childhood screening, including, but not limited to, the recommendations of the Prenatal Screening Committee and the Neonatal Screening Committee. Examples include, but are not limited to, decisions relating to the disclosure of adventitious information (unanticipated findings made in the course of screening), consent, storage of samples, access to stored samples, utility of new screening technologies, etc.;

• the operations of the prenatal and neonatal screening programs are integrated to the extent that relevant issues are considered in the full context of the reproductive cycle;

• policy decisions are based on sound scientific evidence;

• relevant stakeholders are identified and consulted with regard to proposed changes to the screening programs; and

• other issues, as required.