Ontario looking into regulating 3D ‘entertainment ultrasounds’
Pickering’s BabyView 3D Prenatal Imaging triggered outrage this week when clients discovered they had all received identical photos.

thestar.com
May 20, 2016
By May Warren

For expectant parents, a 3D ultrasound photo can provide the first glimpse of their baby’s face and become a treasured keepsake, proudly displayed on the fridge and used to break the good news to friends and family on Facebook.

But so called “entertainment ultrasounds” done without any medical purpose are unregulated in Ontario. They don’t fall under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care because the service isn’t medical.

It’s something the minister’s office says it is now prepared to look into, after hearing about the outrage of dozens of GTA expectant parents who were given identical photos after getting 3D ultrasounds at Pickering’s BabyView 3D Prenatal Imaging.

The facility posted an apology on its Facebook page, blaming the error on a “technical glitch.”

“As a result of the stories this week, I think it would be appropriate that we also take a look at some of the entertainment, less medically focused places,” said Joshua McLarnon, a spokesperson from Health Minister Eric Hoskins’ office.

In response to a Star investigation into outbreaks of infection at pain and colonoscopy clinics, the ministry asked Health Quality Ontario, an agency that advises the province on quality care, to develop recommendations for tighter oversight of medical clinics.

This month, the agency released its report, which recommends requiring clinics to pass inspections and to post the results in waiting rooms and online, and to develop a single system of oversight.

Entertainment ultrasound clinics are not covered under the current scope of the recommendations, but the ministry is considering changing that.

“We are committed to expanding the scope of our oversight review to include non-medical clinics like those,” said McLarnon.

Such facilities raise concerns for Greg Toffner, president and CEO of the Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Sciences.

“Anyone could just go and buy themselves a scanner if they want, there’s nothing prohibiting or stopping anyone from doing that and operating something out of their garage if they want,” said Toffner.

“Say you’re pregnant and you’re going into one of these clinics, you’re making an assumption that the person scanning you is a qualified practitioner, and in most cases they’re just someone that’s been trained, like the secretary, or some administrator,” he said speaking generally, not about any specific case.

Both Health Canada and the U.S Food and Drug Administration advise people not to get entertainment ultrasounds.

“Health Canada recommends parents not expose their unborn babies to fetal ultrasound for the purpose of creating 3D non-medical ultrasound images or keepsake videos,” wrote spokesperson Rebecca Gilman in an email.

There is no confirmed health risk for the mother or baby from any ultrasounds, but it does cause some heating to tissue.

A quick Google search by the Star showed several of these kinds of businesses operate across the GTA, including a handful advertised on Kijiji, and even a few people selling ultrasound equipment.

Toffner said he’s heard anecdotally about cases were there was something wrong with the baby but the person doing the sonogram didn’t have the training to notice or act.

“The fetus is stillborn and they’re taking pictures of it and sending the people home with nice images of the face, thinking that everything’s fine,” he said, speaking again generally and not about BabyView 3D Prenatal Imaging.

The Star has no confirmation that this has ever actually happened.

In response to phone calls and an email from the Star, someone at Pickering’s BabyView 3D Prenatal Imaging identified only as Adeel wrote that all their sonographers are “Canadian certified,” in an email.

The Pickering facility offers moms to be a live “4D” recording of the ultrasound on DVD set to music, as well as a CD with 3D images, and will tell them the gender of the baby if requested, in packages ranging from $65-$269.

But sonographers aren’t part of any regulatory body, as doctors, nurses or radiation technologists are.

Johan Rudnick, the executive director of Sonography Canada, an organization that represents medical sonographers, also sees entertainment ultrasounds as potentially harmful.

“The real problem is that anyone can order an ultrasound machine from the web, put up a shingle and set up operations without any proper training or knowledge,” he said.