Motherisk

Motherisk was a clinical and research program at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, established in 1985 as a teratogen information service to provide evidence-based safety information on exposures in pregnancy and lactation.[1][2]

Motherisk had[3] two helplines available providing information and guidance to those planning a pregnancy, pregnant or lactating, and to health care professionals:

  1. The otherisk General Helpline provides evidence-based information regarding the safety or risks to the pregnancy, fetus and/or infant from exposure to medications, natural products, chemicals, diseases, radiation, environmental agents and other exposures during pregnancy and breastfeeding.[1][2][4]
  2. The Motherisk Alcohol and Substance Use Helpline provides evidence-based information regarding the safety or risks to the pregnancy, fetus and/or infant from exposure to alcohol, nicotine, smoking cessation products, methadone, buprenorphine and recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy during pregnancy and breastfeeding.[1][2][4]

Independent of the Helplines, a drug testing laboratory (Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory (MDTL)) was operating from the late 1990s until April 2015, at which time the laboratory was closed.

Awards

Gideon Koren and colleagues for the Motherisk team were recognized as one of the two highest-ranking winners of the 2011 CIHR/CMAJ competition for Top Achievements in Health Research. The CMAJ published their Essay for the 2011 award.[5]

Controversy

An independent review commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General concluded in 2015 that "hair-strand drug and alcohol testing used by the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory between 2005 and 2015 was inadequate and unreliable for use in child protection and criminal proceedings and that the Laboratory did not meet internationally recognized forensic standards."[6] The US State of Colorado was one of the jurisdictions that in 1993 described the lab's results as "not competent evidence".[7] The report called for further investigation of some of the 16,000 child protection cases where testing by Motherisk had been requested and sometimes used as evidence in child protection and criminal proceedings, citing "serious implications for the fairness of those proceedings".[6]

In 2017, an investigation into Gideon Koren was commenced by the College of Physician and Surgeons in Ontario into whether he committed professional misconduct or was incompetent while he was in charge of the Motherisk Laboratory. As a result, Gideon Koren agreed to relinquish his license to practice medicine in Ontario in 2019.[8]

See also
  • Gideon Koren, former Motherisk laboratory director who relinquished his licence to practice medicine in Ontario in the face of an investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons into whether he committed “professional misconduct or was incompetent” while he was in charge of the Motherisk laboratory.
  • Charles Randal Smith, disgraced forensic pathologist, also in Ontario
  • Foster care, the system many children removed from their parents by Children's Aid were placed into through Motherisk

References
  1. "The Hospital for Sick Children - Motherisk". www.motherisk.org. Archived from the original on 20 December 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  2. "The Hospital for Sick Children - Motherisk". www.motherisk.org. Archived from the original on 20 December 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  3. "SickKids shuts down Motherisk helplines after grants, donations 'reduced to zero' | CBC News".
  4. Koren G, Graham K, Feigenbaum A, Einarson T (May 1993). "Evaluation and counseling of teratogenic risk: the motherisk approach". J Clin Pharmacol. 33 (5): 405–11. doi:10.1002/j.1552-4604.1993.tb04679.x. PMID 8331196. S2CID 72869831.
  5. Gideon Koren; Irena Nulman; Katarina Aleksa; Joey Gareri; Adrienne Einarson; Shinya Ito; for the Motherisk Program (2012), "Essay for the 2011 CIHR/CMAJ award: Motherisk — caring for mothers, protecting the unborn", CMAJ, 184 (2): E155–E157, doi:10.1503/cmaj.112128, PMC 3273537, PMID 22271922
  6. Susan E. Lang (2015), Report of the Motherisk Hair Analysis Independent Review, Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General
  7. "Motherisk hair test evidence tossed out of Colorado court 2 decades before questions raised in Canada | CBC News".
  8. "Former head of Sick Kids' Motherisk lab gives up medical licence amid investigation | The Star". Toronto Star.
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