Critical Congenital Heart Disease Screening

Screening for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) is available for babies in Ontario.

CCHD refers to conditions where a baby’s heart or major blood vessels around the heart have not formed properly. They are called critical because they require surgery or intervention in the first year of life to ensure healthy outcomes for the baby. Pulse oximetry screening can help find these conditions before the baby becomes sick. Babies have better outcomes when CCHD is found early.

CCHD screening is done at the bedside and results are available right away. Our goal is to support a quality, standardized program that offers CCHD screening for all Ontario babies. To do this, we collect CCHD screening results, which ensures high quality screening and care.  

Health care providers looking for CCHD screening resources, including screening tools, protocols, and education support, can visit the NSO Submitter Hub.