Montreal Children's Hospital

In a high-risk pregnancy (premature labor, congenital fetal abnormality or health problem in the mother posing a risk to herself or the fetus), the family is followed by a team of obstetricians, neonatologists and other specialists who provide advice, treatment and follow-up during pregnancy and after delivery. When a birth defect is diagnosed early in the pregnancy, the Fetal Diagnostic and Treatment Group (FDTG) works closely with the parents to provide them with information about the diagnosis, prognosis, treatments, and possible procedures during the pregnancy or after the birth. This team is comprised of geneticists, surgeons, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists, cardiologists, nephrologists, and nurses, who meet regularly to discuss various cases.

The neonatal transport team of the Montreal Children’s Hospital is composted of a group of nurses and respiratory therapists who have advanced training in neonatal transport medicine. They are working in collaboration with consulting MDs at the Montreal Children’s Hospital’s NICU and they are covering the transport services 24/7. More than 400 babies are transported annually for emergent stabilization and consultation from more than 50 centers in Quebec. The transport admissions to the NICU represent more than 40% of all NICU admissions at the MCH. The transport team utilizes state of the art equipment specially designed for neonatal transport, mirroring the standards or care found in neonatal critical units as well as national and international recommendations for the neonatal transport. When a patient’s transport is requested from a referring center, the team is mobilized as fast as possible. The medical team from the NICU is also available to answer questions or to provide assistance regarding patient management.

The MCH Neonatal Transport Program is a participating member of the Canadian Neonatal Transport Network (CNTN) which integrates comparative data and benchmarking from many transport programs across Canada. The objective is to improve neonatal transport outcomes through sharing evidence based practice within the Canadian Neonatal Network (CNN).

The Neonatal Outreach Program provides training and support to physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists at referring centers. In additional to helping interested hospitals establish a neonatal resuscitation program (NRP) and reviewing pertinent referred cases, there is also a didactic curriculum about common neonatal presentations and emergencies. The Neonatal Outreach Program also uses in site simulations within interested sites to augment learning.

Activities include implementation of the neonatal resuscitation program (NRP), cases discussions, didactic learning about neonatal morbidities and emergencies, and on site simulations to facilitate learning about the care of unstable neonates.

Since 2008, the MCH has offered therapeutic hypothermia to newborns born after 36 weeks with asphyxia who meet the eligibility criteria based on their neurological exam or their brain activity as seen on amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG). Since 2008, 1,054 patients have been referred to our centre, approximately 33% of whom were treated with body cooling. In 2016, our transport program has implemented the use of active cooling on transport.

Each year since 2011 the McGill Neonatal Conference is held, at which a guest speaker lectures to professionals from referring centers throughout the province on an emerging topic.

2022:Neonatal Cardiac Issues. Guest speakers:Dr. William Benitz, Stanford, CA, USA; Dr Edgar Jaeggi, Ontario, Canada.
2021: Neurological Issues in the Neonate. Guest speakers: Dr. Steven Miller, Toronto, Canada.
2020: No conference due to COVID restrictions
2019: Neonatal Respiratory Care. Guest speakers: Dr Jen-Tien Wung, New Jersey, USA; Dr Hany Aly, Ohio, USA.
2018: Neonatal Hematological Problems. Guest speakers: Dr. Robert Christensen, Utah, USA; Dr Anthony Chan, Ontario, Canada.
2017: Perinatal Problems. Guest speakers: Dr. Nestor Vain, Argentina; Dr. Abbot Laptook, Rhode Island, USA; Dr. François Luks, Rhode Island, USA; Dr. Nicholas Embleton, New Castle, England and Dr. Monique De Paepe, Rhode Island, USA.
2016: Neonatal Infectious Problems. Guests speakers: Dr. Bosco Paes and Dr. Pablo Sanchez
2015: Neonatal Surgical Problems.
2014: Neonatal Cardiorespiratory Problems. Guest speaker: Dr. Martin Keszler, Brown University, Rhode Island
2013: Neonatal nutrition. Guest speaker: Dr. Josef Neu, Gainesville, Florida
2012: Extremely preterm neonates: From conception to childhood. Guest speaker: Dr. Peter Davis, Melbourne, Australia
2011: Therapeutic hypothermia. Guest speaker: Dr. Abbot Laptook, Brown University, Rhode Island

Each year, we also host a keynote speaker as part of the Dr. Robert Usher Lecture. This lecture is named after Dr. Usher: a pioneer in the field of neonatology. These have included

• Dr. Christian F. Poets, Tuebingen University, Germany;
• Dr. John Zupancic, Boston, Massachusetts;
• Dr. Peter M. Dunn, University of Bristol;
• Dr. Eduardo Bancalari, Miami University;
• Dr. Joseph Volpe, Harvard Medical School;
• Dr. Saroj Saigal, McMaster University;
• Dr. Judy L. Aschner, Vanderbilt University;
• Dr. Pablo Sanchez, University of Texas Southwestern, TX;
• Dr. Wally Carlo, University of Birmingham, Alabama;
• Dr. Vinod Bhutani, Stanford University;
• Dr. Alan Jobe, Cincinnati, OH.

Other guest speakers who have visited our NICUs since 2009 include:

Dr. Colin Morley, Melbourne University, Australia
Dr. J. T. Wung, Columbia University, NY
Dr. Jeffrey Ferranti, Duke University, NC
Dr. Patrick McNamara, University of Toronto, ON
Dr. Brian Simmons, University of Toronto, ON
Dr. Roger Soll, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
Dr. Robin Steinhorn, UC Davis, CA
Dr. Richard Martin, UH Cleveland Medical Center
Dr. Abbot Laptook, Brown University, RI
Dr. Lina Chalak, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX
Dr. George Little, Dartmouth, NH
Dr. Hannah Glass, UCSF
Dr. Richard Martin – Rainbow Babies, Cleveland
Dr. Emily Tan – Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Dr. Hany Aly - George Washington
Dr. Seetha Shankaran - Wayne State University
Dr. Jack Sinclair - McMaster University
Dr. Lex Doyle – University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Page Church - Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Dr. Brian Simmons – Sunnybrook, Toronto
Dr. Prakesh Shah – Mont-Sinai, Toronto
Dr. Bosco Paes – McMaster University
Dr. Ronald Clyman - UCSF
Dr. Jennifer Beck – St-Michael’s Hospital, Toronto
Dr. Cristopher Synderby - Toronto
Dr. Neil Finer - San Diego
Dr. Jacques Belik - Toronto
Dr. Summesh - McMaster - US course
Dr. Prashanth - McMaster - US course
Dr. Michael-Andrew Assad – Calgary
Dr. John Profit – Stanford
Dr. Kevin Dysart - CHOP, Pennsylvania
Nurses: Kathy Randall, Danielle and Kathy Overman

For more information about the Division of Neonatology's subspecialty residency or fellowship programs please visit Education and Training.

Graduate Diploma Nurse Practitioner Neonatology

In the early 1990s, a pioneer hospital based Neonatal Nurse Practitioners (NNP) training program was created at the Montreal Children’s Hospital under the leadership of Dr Eugene Outerbridge.

Since 2004, this hospital program became a maters program under the McGill School of Nursing. The MCH remains one of the main training sites of the program which has trained most NNPs in practice in the province of Quebéc.

For additional information, please visit the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Ingram School of Nursing website.