March 2021
When the cornea donation and transplantation community met face-to-face in Toronto in February 2020, no one could have predicted the unprecedented year we'd experience. In spite of the challenges COVID-19 caused, the engagement, excitement and momentum generated from the Cornea Donation and Transplantation: National Consensus Forum for Improving Access in Canada continued to build. We are excited to share a snapshot of the progress and advances made over the last 12 months toward realizing the bold and transformative recommendation from this forum.
As a first step the Ocular Forum Implementation Planning Committee was established. This committee's role is to develop strategies to bring forum recommendations into action. This committee is Chaired by Christine Humphreys, director at Eye Bank of Canada - Ontario Division, and Darrell Lewis, transplant ophthalmologist and assistant professor of ophthalmology at Dalhousie University. See full list of committee members below.
On March 20, 2020, a meeting of the Canadian eye and tissue donation community was held. The aim of the meeting was to share information and develop a consensus guidance that could be used by provincial donation organizations as well as eye and tissue banks to guide the administration of services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This group met weekly at first and continues to meet monthly to share updates, understand the impact on patients, discuss supply, screening and policy, exchange data and ensure the community stays connected. Together, this group performed a risk assessment on the potential for transmission of COVID-19 through ocular and tissue donors, conducted a security of supply analysis and tracked the status of eye and tissue banks since the pandemic began. This group is committed to continue meeting as we face new challenges and emerging questions related to this global crisis.
In October of 2020, we published the official National Consensus Forum report on our professional education website, along with a feature story.
Three academic publications from the forum are underway, two of which have been submitted for publication:
One of the key recommendations from the forum was to increase collaboration between provinces, work together to optimize performance and communicate more effectively and with a single community voice. To advance this recommendation, the Implementation Planning Committee took on the challenge of improving and designing a governance model for bringing the eye and tissue community together at the national level. As part of this work, the committee is recommending the creation of the following three new national structures:
The details, membership and terms of reference for these structures are currently in development.
Another key recommendation from the forum was to identify mechanisms and opportunities for provinces and eye banks that have the capacity to exceed demand within their current infrastructure to share surplus with other provinces that experience challenges in meeting demand. There was support among forum participants to prioritize interprovincial sharing and cost recovery, not only to promote universal access across Canada but also to enable Canadian need to be met domestically, improve security of supply, and reduce our reliance on international importation.
As a first step, the Forum Implementation Committee launched a national survey to understand the capacity, need and compatibility among programs with respect to the donor and tissue suitability criteria and accreditation standards associated with distribution. Thank you to all the Canadian Eye Banks that completed the survey. The committee is now analyzing the results of the survey and will use this to develop and propose an interprovincial cornea sharing framework and proposal to be presented at the Canadian Opthalmological Society Eye Bank Committee meeting in June 2021.
As we enter year two, the Forum Implementation Planning Committee begins to explore the development of a national data strategy and targeted public education and awareness for eye and tissue donation. If you are interested in engaging in any of these topics or feel there are other topics the Forum Implementation Committee should be addressing, please reach out to share your ideas, feedback and areas of interest. Email: OTDT@blood.ca.
Affiliation
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Dr. Stephen Brodovsky |
Chair, Canadian Ophthalmological Society Eye Bank Committee, Medical Director, Misericordia Eye Bank, MB |
Dr. Mélanie Dieudé |
Executive Director, Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program |
Ed Ferre |
Director, BC Transplant, Member, Donation and Transplantation Administrators Advisory Committee (DTAAC), Vancouver, BC |
Étienne Fissette |
Directeur de l’exploitation des tissus humains, Héma-Québec, Québec, QC |
Elisabeth Fowler |
Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Ophthalmological Society, Ottawa, ON |
Lori Garchinski |
Executive Director, Provincial Services - Tertiary Care, Saskatoon, SK, OTDC Equity Co-Chair |
David Hartell |
Associate Director, System Development, Canadian Blood Services, Ottawa, ON |
Christine Humphreys, Chair |
Director, Eye Bank of Canada, Ontario Division, Toronto, ON |
Denice Klavano |
Donor Family, Quality & Patient Safety Leader, Patient Relations Nova Scotia Health Authority, Halifax, NS |
Dr. Patricia-Ann Laughrea |
Canadian Standards Association Technical Committee Safety of Ocular Tissue Medical Director, Banque d’yeux du Centre universitaire d’ophtalmologie, Québec, QC |
Nick Lahaie |
Manager, Information Management, OTDT, Canadian Blood Services |
Dr. Darrell Lewis, Chair |
Eye Bank Medical Director, Regional Tissue Bank of Nova Scotia/Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Halifax, NS |
Kyle Maru |
Senior Data Analyst, Information Management, OTDT, Canadian Blood Services |
Dr. Paul Postuma |
Cornea Recipient, Family Physician, St. Joseph's Community Health Centre/Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University/Assistant Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland
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Dr. Guillermo Rocha |
Medical Director, Ocular Microsurgery & Laser Centre, Brandon Regional Health Centre, Brandon, MB |