A national organ donation and transplantation COVID-19 impact dashboard was developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was intended to help the community better understand, in near real time, the impact the COVID-19 crisis has had, either directly or indirectly on organ donation and transplantation in Canada and by extension, what impact these changes have had on potential donors and transplant candidates. This dashboard has evolved and now provides preliminary national system (unvalidated) data that continues to show potential impacts of COVID-19 and other issues facing system performance in Canada.
The Canadian Society for Transplantation provides expert consensus guidance that can be used by provincial organ donation organizations and regional transplant and donation programs to guide the management of COVID-19 vaccination in transplant recipients in light of the pandemic. It is understood that each organization, program, and jurisdiction will develop their own policies. This guidance has been translated into multiple languages
The rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation is leading to vast amounts of information being generated and shared. To avoid information overload and duplication of efforts, the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, Canadian Blood Services, and the Canadian Society of Transplantation in collaboration with the Vincent Larivière team from the Canada Research Chair at the Université de Montréal are developing a systematic, coordinated approach to search, retrieve, synthesize and store emerging information related to COVID-19 implications for organ and tissue donation and transplantation. This effort aims to create an repository for COVID-19 relevant organ and tissue donation and transplantation references, inform evidence-based emergency response recommendations, and highlight knowledge gaps that warrant investigation.
Canadian Blood Services, the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, and the Canadian Society of Transplantation have partnered to: 1) generate evidence-based, expert informed rapid response recommendations that are updated as evidence evolves; and 2) identify knowledge gaps and research opportunities. As part of this work, we have created a website that provides a review of publicly available recommendations related to COVID-19 and organ donation and transplantation.
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