PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Motherisk is gone, finished, doors shut, but it will not rest in peace - certainly not in the minds of the hundreds of innocent women lured to the program because of the Hospital's iconic image, and then finding themselves facing child welfare proceedings - and occasionally losing their children to child welfare authorities - likely never to retrieve them back, because of the hospital's sorely-flawed hair-analysis lab which was part of the Motherisk program. The hospital's explanation for finally shuttering what's left of Motherisk's doors, as reported by Michelle Henry: "The lack of funding for the helplines, the statement said, was the result of difficulty securing private support for the program after the “adverse publicity” it received concerning the quality of work carried out by a hair analysis laboratory that also carried the “Motherisk” name. “Consideration was given to renaming and rebranding the helplines,” the statement said. “However, questions quickly arose as to whether this service was best hosted at a pediatric hospital.” Sick Kids said in the statement that it does “not believe it is appropriate” to continue to subsidize the helplines from a budget focused on “complex care for some of the sickest children in Ontario and from across Canada.” Yes, there was adverse publicity. But the failure of the Hospital to raise funds for the helplines indicates something much deeper than linguistic confusion between two parts of the same program. It indicates a deep, well-warranted lack of trust in the Hospital for Sick Children for betraying its patients and their families, by utterly disregarding its assurances that the hospital had learned from its mistakes that allowed Charles Smith to continue to harm so many innocent parents and caregivers - (if it had honoured these assurances there likely never would have been a Motherisk) - and by falsely describing the Motherisk lab to the public as the gold-standard of drug hair analysis labs. It was anything but. The hospital will likely be happy to see the 'Motherisk' moniker fade from public memory it, like the Ontario Pediatric Forensic Unit which Charles Smith developed within the hospital, is a seering symbol of the hospital's shame. It also should make us wonder why the hospital allowed self-aggrandizing men like Charles Smith and Gideon Koren to flourish for so long - and where was the management that would have detected their flaws - and the harm they were causing - by removing them from their positions at much earlier times - in spite of the money and glory they were bringing to the hospital. Where were the Board of Directors of Sick Kids, who were supposed to be protecting the public? Who were the directors who allowed the Smith and Koren debacles to happen on their watch? Are some still on the Sick Kids Board? Kudos to the Star and reporters Rachel Mendleson, Michele Henry, Jacques Gallant, and others who worked on the massive story -- for their excellent work in bringing the Motherisk tragedy to light.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The lack of funding for the helplines, the statement said, was the result of difficulty securing private support for the program after the “adverse publicity” it received concerning the quality of work carried out by a hair analysis laboratory that also carried the “Motherisk” name. “Consideration was given to renaming and rebranding the helplines,” the statement said. “However, questions quickly arose as to whether this service was best hosted at a pediatric hospital.” Sick Kids said in the statement that it does “not believe it is appropriate” to continue to subsidize the helplines from a budget focused on “complex care for some of the sickest children in Ontario and from across Canada.” The Motherisk Helplines program was created in 1985 by Dr. Gideon Koren, the beleaguered researcher who agreed earlier this year to never practise medicine again in Ontario."
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STORY: "Motherisk Helplines hanging up phones for good," by investigative reporter reporter Michele Henry, published by The Toronto Star on April 16, 2019.
PHOTO CAPTION: "The Motherisk Helplines program was created in 1985 by Dr. Gideon Koren, the beleaguered researcher who agreed earlier this year to never practise medicine again in Ontario. Its mandate was to provide information about taking medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding."
GIST: "The Hospital for Sick Children announced Tuesday its Motherisk Helplines will permanently hang up its phones after unsuccessful efforts to find funding for the program, A Star investigation into Motherisk that has spanned several years has shone a spotlight on its problematic founder and affiliated hair-testing lab. It sparked an independent review that concluded in 2015 that drug and alcohol hair tests performed at the lab — and used in thousands of child-protection cases, as well as several criminal cases — were “inadequate and unreliable. “Without sustainable, secure funding and absent an alternative, reputable organization to host and fund the Helplines, Sick Kids has made the difficult decision to close the program,” Sick Kids interim CEO Dr. David Naylor said in an emailed statement from the hospital. “Sick Kids also believes the program needs to be reinvented, set up with a clear national mandate, and tied more closely to the obstetrics and primary care communities,” Naylor said. “Physicians and scientists on our staff would be very happy to work with any new host organizations.” The Motherisk Clinic will continue to take referrals from health-care providers, the statement said. It advised those with questions about risks during pregnancy and breastfeeding to seek help from health-care providers and other organizations. It is unclear exactly when the phone lines will go dead. The lack of funding for the helplines, the statement said, was the result of difficulty securing private support for the program after the “adverse publicity” it received concerning the quality of work carried out by a hair analysis laboratory that also carried the “Motherisk” name. “Consideration was given to renaming and rebranding the helplines,” the statement said. “However, questions quickly arose as to whether this service was best hosted at a pediatric hospital.” Sick Kids said in the statement that it does “not believe it is appropriate” to continue to subsidize the helplines from a budget focused on “complex care for some of the sickest children in Ontario and from across Canada.” The Motherisk Helplines program was created in 1985 by Dr. Gideon Koren, the beleaguered researcher who agreed earlier this year to never practise medicine again in Ontario. Its mandate was to provide information about taking medication during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The helplines still receive calls, the Sick Kids statement said, and “closing the service was not an easy decision.” Late last year, another Star investigation exposed flaws in medical publishing, including the inability and unwillingness of journals and research institutions to correct and preserve the integrity of the scientific record, after reviewing more than 1,400 papers co-written over 30 years by Koren. Sick Kids closed the Motherisk lab in 2015."
The entire story can be read at:
Read Toronto Star editorial at the link below: (Feb. 3, 2016): "Its findings shattered families, changed lives and ruined reputations, but the impact of Motherisk doesn’t end there. Despite being closed down last spring, the Hospital for Sick Children’s deeply flawed program, testing hair for traces of drug or alcohol abuse, is causing fresh pain. Due to questionable results produced by Motherisk, adoption cases involving up to 300 Ontario children have been put on hold. As reported by the Star’s Alex Ballingall and Laurie Monsebraaten, a special commission is reviewing child custody cases in which evidence from Motherisk was used. While that’s done, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies has halted 200 to 300 adoptions involving kids who ended up in care, at least in part, due to this dubious drug testing. If the review finds some of those children were improperly removed from their families, they should be returned. Meanwhile, legitimately at-risk kids waiting to go to new homes — and parents eager to receive them — are now stuck in limbo because of this lab’s unacceptable hair-testing. This should serve as both a vivid indictment of faulty lab processes and a cautionary tale on the importance getting of evidence right. Motherisk failed on both counts. An independent review, sparked by a Star investigation, concluded last year that process of testing hair at the lab was “inadequate and unreliable.” The damning examination, by retired Court of Appeal judge Susan Lang, found that Motherisk “fell woefully short of internationally recognized forensic standards” and that Sick Kids failed to supply “meaningful oversight.” This “had serious implications for the fairness of child protection and criminal cases,” Lang concluded. In the wake of that finding, the provincial government appointed retired provincial court judge Judith Beaman, a family law expert, to work as an independent commissioner looking into cases that may have been tainted by flawed Motherisk hair testing going back to 1990. This process is expected to take two years. As reported by the Star’s Jacques Gallant, Beaman has been instructed to offer “early advice or guidance” on “high priority cases,” especially matters involving children’s aid societies. Adoptions stuck on hold should be of top concern. Every effort should be made to either clear the way for a child to permanently move into a new family or return to his or her original home, provided there was no good reason for removing the youngster in the first place."
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/02/03/motherisk-is-causing-fresh-pain-editorial.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
