"The Hospital for Sick Children continued to
vigorously defend its Motherisk laboratory in the face of serious
concerns about the reliability of the lab’s drug and alcohol hair tests,
internal documents show. Concerns about Motherisk, whose hair tests
were used as evidence of parental substance abuse in child welfare
cases across the country, would ultimately prompt the hospital to
shutter the lab last spring, in the wake of a Star investigation. Two months ago, Sick Kids CEO Michael Apkon
issued an apology to “children, families and organizations who feel that
they may have been impacted in some negative way” by what he described as “unacceptable” practices at Motherisk. But in late 2014, as scrutiny intensified, the
hospital went on the defensive for the lab, developing a communications
strategy that included pre-written lines to give to news media, as well
as specific “key messages” for child welfare agencies, documents
obtained through a Freedom of Information request reveal. “Over the past couple of weeks, a group of
dedicated staff have carefully reviewed the processes, methodologies and
quality control data from the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory
(MDTL),” Apkon wrote in an internal communication to “colleagues” on
Nov. 21, 2014. “Through this review, we are confident that we
are utilizing the appropriate technologies and methodologies with
rigorous quality control measures in place to assess and evaluate the
reliability and proficiency of the work in the lab,” he said. Apkon and pediatrician-in-chief Dr. Denis
Daneman echoed this sentiment in a letter published in the Star on Nov.
25, 2014, in which they said they had “full confidence in the
reliability of Motherisk’s hair testing.” These assurances came nearly a month into a
Star investigation that found that from at least 2005 to 2010, Motherisk
used a method to test hair for drugs that some experts criticized as
falling short of the “gold standard.”.......... The Star’s probe — which led the province to launch an independent review of Motherisk — followed an October 2014 Court of Appeal decision that cast doubt on evidence Motherisk presented in the criminal trial of Toronto mother Tamara Broomfield. In a document entitled “Key messages for
OACAS” from Nov. 11, 2014, the hospital describes the Broomfield case as
“singular” and “unique.” “The methods we use to determine evidence in
our routine work were then, and continue to be, vigorously evaluated on a
continuing basis,” the document states. A media statement from the same
date said that Motherisk “has a robust quality assurance program in
place and uses the most advanced testing methodology and standards
available.”.........Broomfield was sentenced to seven years in
prison after she was found guilty in 2009 of giving her toddler a
near-lethal dose of cocaine in 2005, based in part on Motherisk’s tests
of the boy’s hair. A court of appeal tossed her cocaine-related
convictions after the Crown consented to the admission of fresh expert
evidence, which criticized the test Motherisk used as “preliminary.”"
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Motherisk: (Aftermath 2); Toronto Star: "Sick Kids defended Motherisk lab — at first documents show hospital’s messaging strategy stood by the lab’s controversial test results until early 2015." (A Star investigation found that from at least 2005 to 2010, Motherisk used a method to test hair for drugs that some experts criticized as falling short of the “gold standard.”) ..." Two months ago, Sick Kids CEO Michael Apkon issued an apology to “children, families and organizations who feel that they may have been impacted in some negative way” by what he described as “unacceptable” practices at Motherisk. But in late 2014, as scrutiny intensified, the hospital went on the defensive for the lab, developing a communications strategy that included pre-written lines to give to news media, as well as specific “key messages” for child welfare agencies, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request reveal. “Over the past couple of weeks, a group of dedicated staff have carefully reviewed the processes, methodologies and quality control data from the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory (MDTL),” Apkon wrote in an internal communication to “colleagues” on Nov. 21, 2014. “Through this review, we are confident that we are utilizing the appropriate technologies and methodologies with rigorous quality control measures in place to assess and evaluate the reliability and proficiency of the work in the lab,” he said. Apkon and pediatrician-in-chief Dr. Denis Daneman echoed this sentiment in a letter published in the Star on Nov. 25, 2014, in which they said they had “full confidence in the reliability of Motherisk’s hair testing.” Reported by Rachel Mendelson.
