Learn about the origins of BORN Ontario and key milestones in our journey
TimeframeBORN Milestones

1980s

BORN Ontario traces its roots to the Perinatal Education Program of Eastern Ontario (PEPEO), a program led by Dr. Patricia Niday, who envisioned the use of data to support better obstetrical and neonatal care. At the time, many participating hospitals contributed monthly maternal newborn data to the Ottawa Public Health Unit for analysis and summary.

Late 1990's

PEPEO became the Perinatal Partnership Program of Eastern and Southeastern Ontario (PPPESO) as regional hospitals saw the value of aggregating data to examine outcomes and identify areas for improvement. Together with other Ontario perinatal networks, PPPESO lobbied the provincial government for funding to expand the database renamed as the Niday Perinatal Database in honour of its namesake's vision and dedication.

2003

The Child Health Network and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) member hospitals joined the system adding 50% of provincial births to the system. The database was still housed within PPPESO and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and became known as the Ontario Perinatal Surveillance System (OPSS). OPSS developed the Niday NICU module, extended its partnerships, and encouraged more Ontario hospitals to contribute data in support of better care.

2006

The government's first provincial report on perinatal care was produced. Concurrently, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care reorganization led to the formation of the Maternal Child Health Strategy Division. Responsible for a number of maternal child data sources in the province, the division quickly recognized the value of integrating data within an appropriate privacy environment to facilitate and improve care. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care directed OPSS to amalgamate data from clinical programs: prenatal screening, the Fetal Alert Network (for congenital anomalies), the Ontario Midwifery Program, the Niday perinatal and NICU modules, and Newborn Screening Ontario.

2009

With new provincial funding, OPSS was rebranded as the Better Outcomes Registry and Network (BORN) Ontario. The five founding partner groups, BORN staff and project consultants designed and built the new BORN Information System (BIS) while still carrying out partner program activities and using the existing data to support quality improvement and practice.

2010-2011

Full registry status - under the Personal Health Information Privacy Act (PHIPA) - was obtained in 2011.

January 23, 2012

The BORN Information System (BIS) was launched. BORN's Maternal Newborn Dashboard went live in November 2012 providing audit and feedback on key performance indicators for hospitals.

2012-2019

BORN created a safe, secure method to send Healthy Baby Health Children ‘screens' from hospitals through the BIS to Ontario Public Health Units.  BORN partnered with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) to pilot an electronic version of the Healthy Baby Healthy Children screen (eHBHC) offered to mothers after the birth of a baby to provide support and access to community services.  The project led to an eHBHC provincial rollout offered to hospitals and health units supporting the earlier identification of families with potential risk using a secure, efficient transfer of personal health information.

January 2013

Data on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles from fertility clinics across Ontario was incorporated into the BIS via the CARTR Plus system. BORN developed an on-line reporting portal to allow users to run standardized and custom reports on their data.

2014-2015

BORN ‘grows' – In partnership with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS), BORN expanded its data collection from the electronic medical records of primary care sites for well-baby well-child visits from birth to five years of age. The project aimed to improve clinical workflow and help providers to assess and monitor child health though use of standardized forms and the creation of summary reports.

2015-2018

In partnership with the CHEO Autism Program, BORN expanded the BIS to collect Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths – Autism Spectrum Profile (CANS ASP©) data from 13 lead Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) agencies across the province. BORN created reports to provide a snapshot of children's progress at the individual, agency and provincial level.

2015

In December of 2015, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care began funding one IVF per person in Ontario through the Ontario Fertility Program (OFP). As part of their agreement to provide funded cycles, Ontario IVF Medical Directors agreed to allow the Ministry to monitor outcomes of funded IVF cycles through CARTR Plus.

2016

As Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) - also called cffDNA , screening was patriated in Ontario, labs started contributing data to the BIS. This data is linked to pregnancy outcomes to determine the performance of NIPT in this population. BORN has been capturing multiple marker screening data since the creation of the registry.

2017

On April 25, 2017, BORN celebrated 1,000,000 babies in the registry!

2017

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) announced the creation of a provincial prenatal screening program - Prenatal Screening Ontario (PSO). PSO is housed within BORN as its work will be driven by BORN data.

2019

BORN launched a new encounter to collect cytogenetic data results from both prenatal and neonatal testing.