BORN Ontario

The Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN Ontario) is a Canadian research network based in Ottawa, Ontario. Its purpose is to collect and organize data on perinatal, newborn and child wellbeing in the Province of Ontario.

In 2010, members from the Council of Medical Officers of Health (COMOH) and the Association of Public Health Epidemiologists in Ontario (APHEO) submitted a discussion paper to BORN Ontario to advocate for public health unit access to the BORN Ontario registry data for population health assessment and surveillance of reproductive health in Ontario. As a direct result, APHEO representatives engaged with BORN Ontario to identify the mechanism for access to BORN Ontario data for PHUs and relevant data elements for public health.¹⁾

In 2012, Secretary-General of Bethune Medical Development Association of Canada David Dai had a dinner meeting with Mari Teitelbaum, then-director of BORN Ontario, Dr. Shi Wu Wen and Mark Walker, Senior Scientists & Professors at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute/University of Ottawa, Stephen Chan, CEO of Dapasoft, and Michael Lonsway, President of Dapasoft. The possibility of helping China set up their own version of BORN was discussed.²⁾

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, BORN was asked to sit on the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health (PCMCH) Maternal-Neonatal COVID-19 Task Force responsible for developing provincial recommendations to guide care.³⁾ BORN is also represented within the CanCOVID-PREG network,⁴⁾ having contributed to research on SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the BC Women’s Health Foundation.⁵⁾

BORN is administered through the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and “is active in every region of the province.”⁶⁾ It is housed in the Centre for Practice-Changing Research, a research facility jointly run by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and CHEO Research Institute.⁷⁾

BORN is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services.^{45) 46)}

In addition to its host and funders, BORN's key partners include:⁴⁷⁾

• Association of Ontario Midwives
• Canadian Neonatal Network
• Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program
• Dapasoft
• eHealth Ontario
• Health Quality Ontario
• Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)
• Newborn Screening Ontario
• Ontario Hospital Association
• Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health
• Public Health Ontario
• Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada
• Southwestern Ontario Maternal Newborn Child and Youth Network
• TARGetKids!

BORN's website additionally directs guests to a series of external resources, including:

• Alberta Perinatal Health Program
• Canadian Congenital Anomalies Surveillance Network
• Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
• Canadian Perinatal Programs Coalition (CPPC)
• Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System (CPSS)
• CANImmunize
• Council of Canadian Academies
• DoulaCARE
• The MotHERS Program
• Ontario Midwifery Program (OMP)
• Perinatal Services BC
• Reproductive Care Program of Nova Scotia (RCP)
• University of Saskatchewan Perinatal Education Program

On their Staff Directory page, BORN lists contact information for a number of external entities:⁴⁸⁾

• Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors
• Canadian Down Syndrome Society
• Centre for Effective Practice
• Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
• Support Organization for Trisomy (SOFT)
• Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus Association of Canada (SBHAC)

BORN hosts OMama, a website and mobile phone application that provides mothers and families information on pregnancy resources in Ontario.⁴⁹⁾ OMama was launched in November 2015 with support from eHealth Ontario, and is a partnership with eSolutionsGroup, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, Best Start by Health Nexus, Ontario Public Health Association, Association of Ontario Midwives, Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health, Baby Friendly Initiative and Strategy, the Infant Hearing Program and the Ontario College of Family Physicians.⁵⁰⁾