The Ontario Fetal Centre (OFC), a partnership between Mount Sinai Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), occupies a special place in Canada’s health care landscape. Specializing in cutting-edge in-utero surgeries and surgical interventions for sick babies, the OFC boasts a world-renowned team of experts, and offers the best and most advanced care to some of the highest-risk pregnancies.

Led by Dr. Greg Ryan, the OFC has grown to become the only fetal therapy centre in Canada, and one of only a few worldwide, capable of offering a complete range of specialized fetal diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. The partnership with SickKids has meant a full multidisciplinary approach to care, featuring specialists from both hospitals in a range of fields, ensuring excellent integrated and comprehensive care, both pre- and post-natal, to these most fragile of patients.

Thanks to its expert Fetal Therapy Team, the OFC is behind several clinical and scientific breakthroughs. It is where Canada’s complex twin pregnancies are referred for treatment, and its spina bifida program has treated 34 fetuses to date, opening up the possibility of life with normalized mobility for babies with this diagnosis.

Dr. Tim Van Mieghem has recently launched three speciality clinics at the OFC. In 2018, he launched the innovative Early Anatomy Clinic, and, in collaboration with SickKids, an early Echocardiography Clinic where high-risk pregnancies can be evaluated by detailed fetal ultrasounds at as early as 12 weeks’ gestation. In 2020, Van Mieghem led the launch of a multidisciplinary Fetal Neurology Clinic to improve the diagnosis of fetal brain anomalies.

Members of the Fetal Therapy Team are involved in a broad range of clinical research and education. For example, they have run a series of popular fetal therapy courses teaching complex fetal therapy techniques using high-fidelity simulators. To date, physicians from more than 30 countries have attended these courses.