Screening System

Hospitals, birthing centres, midwifery practices and primary health care providers have the following responsibilities in newborn screening:

• Parent education
• Specimen collection, shipping and tracking
• Point of care testing (i.e. screening for Critical Congenital Heart Disease)
• Providing accurate and complete information for every screened infant
• Prompt follow-up of screen positives for Critical Congenital Heart Disease and in the event a sample is unsatisfactory or a screen is missed

Once collected, newborn screening samples are shipped to NSO as soon as possible, every business day. Newborn Screening Ontario covers the cost of a province-wide courier system to ensure that cost is not a barrier to daily shipping.

Screening for Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD) is performed at the bedside and results are sent to Newborn Screening Ontario. 

The team at Newborn Screening Ontario is made up of clinical, laboratory, and administrative staff who participate in the following:

• Laboratory testing of newborn screening samples
• Data management
• Quality assurance
• Education
• Research and development

The NSO Advisory Council (NSO-AC) is an independent advisory body of health and other professionals with expertise in newborn and childhood screening. The mandate of the NSO-AC is to advise the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MoHLTC) and Newborn Screening Ontario (NSO) on its policies and programs related to newborn screening. Please visit the NSO Governance page to learn more about the governance of NSO and the activities of the NSO-AC.

Babies who screen positive for one or more of the diseases tested are referred by Newborn Screening Ontario (NSO) to specialized follow-up centres called Regional Treatment Centres. Healthcare providers at theses centres are responsible for:

• Confirmatory testing of babies who screen positive
• Treatment and management of true positive cases
• Providing follow-up outcome information to NSO
• Education of local healthcare providers