An ultrasound offered to pregnant women in the Netherlands at 13 weeks, seven weeks before the standard anomaly scan, is awaiting advice on its future. On 22 September, the Gezondheidsraad, the Dutch government's Health Council, is due to advise whether the scan should become a permanent, government-offered part of prenatal care. The advice will draw on results from the national IMITAS study, including doctoral work completed this month by Eline Lust of UMC Utrecht and Kim Bronsgeest of Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

Since 1 September 2021, the 13-week scan has been offered through a nationwide research programme rather than as regular screening. The national public health institute RIVM says pregnant women can receive it only by participating in the study and consenting to the use of their data. The Ministry of Health asked the Gezondheidsraad to base its advice on results from that programme, a national study called IMITAS, short for IMplementation of fIrst Trimester Anomaly Scan.

IMITAS, funded by health research agency ZonMw and led by professor M.N. Bekker of LUMC, ran from 2020 to 2025. Two PhD candidates who worked on it, Eline Lust of UMC Utrecht and Kim Bronsgeest of LUMC, completed doctoral theses on its findings. Bronsgeest defended hers in Leiden on 1 September, and UMC Utrecht reported on 4 September that both researchers were defending their theses that week.

Their analysis covered close to 130,000 pregnancies, all initially considered low-risk, scanned at 13 weeks between 2021 and 2022. UMC Utrecht reported the headline numbers: about 98 percent of women received a normal result. When the 13-week scan came back normal, there was still roughly a 1 percent chance that a mild or serious abnormality would turn up later, at the 20-week scan. Among all participants, 1.3 percent were told a possible abnormality had been found and were referred to hospital for further imaging; about half of that group was ultimately reassured, while the rest needed further evaluation.

The appeal of an earlier scan, UMC Utrecht reported, is time: parents facing a serious diagnosis get longer to prepare for a complicated birth, arrange care, or decide whether to continue a pregnancy. Bronsgeest's research, covered separately by Leiden University, found that parents who ended a pregnancy at 15 weeks reported milder psychological symptoms than those who did so at 22 weeks, closer to the standard scan's timing. But the earlier scan does not remove hard choices, only moves them forward. Lust told UMC Utrecht that an abnormal result still brings real stress and uncertainty, and said more should be understood about "what support people need, both when continuing and ending pregnancies."

Despite that, support for keeping the scan available was strong among those who went through it: more than 85 percent of participating pregnant women said, in the research, that the 13-week scan should remain on offer, UMC Utrecht reported, a view most involved healthcare providers shared. Bronsgeest was more cautious about the policy question itself, telling Leiden University's news service that offering it nationally "is not a straightforward decision," since the advantages have to be weighed against the disadvantages before any government makes it standard care.

The Gezondheidsraad is expected to publish its advice on 22 September on whether the government should offer the 13-week scan as a permanent part of prenatal screening.