Where in the world are Canada’s transplant centres?

Published by Canadian Institutes for Health Information (CIHI) April 23, 2024

CIHI’s first release of Organ Donation and Transplantation (ODT) health system indicators and a new data reporting web page features national and provincial volumes for deceased donation, living donation and transplantation, as well as infographics and 13 priority indicators of health system performance related to ODT.

This work is part of the CIHI–Canada Health Infoway co-led project, funded by Health Canada, to develop a modernized data management and reporting system to help make organ donations and transplantations a reality for more Canadians.

Did you know?

Canadians often need to travel or relocate, even across provinces/territories, when waiting to receive an organ transplant.

Depending on the organ, a patient may need to be at the hospital within hours when a matched organ becomes available.
Transplant centres are mostly concentrated in large urban areas and require specialized teams and resources for different organs. Lung, intestine, multi-organ, pediatric and other complex transplants are done only at a few hospitals in Canada.

Data sources for this release are CIHI’s Canadian Organ Replacement Register and Discharge Abstract Database–Hospital Morbidity Database. Future releases will use new data from CIHI’s Canadian ODT Data System (CanODT) as it becomes available.

This data was released during National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week (NOTDAW). CIHI will promote this public release through a series of social media messages across CIHI’s channels.

Register your decision to be an organ and tissue at donateyourorgans.ca