Organ Donation Reports and Publications

The deceased donation program focuses on evolving the quality and safety of national organ donation services in Canada, which will result in continued improvement for access to lifesaving organs and transplants for all Canadians. Work in this area includes initiatives that provide the requisite knowledge, training and skills to healthcare professionals and shift the culture of organ donation to ensure that performance is measured, monitored and that additional system accountabilities to support progress in this area are in place. Published reports and peer reviewed publications are linked below:

Publications

Current use, capacity and perceived barriers to the use of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Canada (November 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic and organ donation and transplantation: ethical issues Ban Ibrahim, Rosanne Dawson, Jennifer A. Chandler, Aviva Goldberg, David Hartell, Laura Hornby, Christy Simpson, Matthew-John Weiss, Lindsay C. Wilson, T. Murray Wilson & Marie-Chantal Fortin BMC Medical Ethics volume 22, Article number: 142 (2021)
Family experiences with non-therapeutic research on dying patients in the intensive care unit.
van Beinum A, Murphy N, Weijer C, Gruben V, Sarti A, Hornby L, Dhanani S, Chandler J.J Med Ethics. 2021 Jul 14:medethics-2021-107311. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2021-107311. Online ahead of print.PMID: 34261806
Flow is not perfusion, and perfusion is not function: ancillary testing for the diagnosis of brain death Guillaume Plourde MD, PhD, FRCPC, Joel Neves Briard MD, Sam D. Shemie MD, Jai Jai Shiva Shankar MD, DM, MSc, FRCPC & Michaël Chassé MD, PhD, FRCPC Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d'anesthésie volume 68, pages953–961 (2021)
Burnout, compassion fatigue and work-related stressors among organ donation and transplantation coordinators: A qualitative study VanessaSilva eSilva, LauraHornby, KenLotherington, AndreaRochon, AminaRegina, Hilary Pearson, Linda MacNutt, Adrian Robertson, KimWerestiuk, DavidKuhl, PeggyJohn, Sonny Dhanani, AimeeSarti https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iccn.2021.103125
Patient engagement in a Canadian consensus forum for heart donation after circulatory determination of death. Healey A, van Beinum A, Hornby L, Wilson LC, Bédard S, Berrigan H, Brodrecht D, Gillrie C, Shing T, Towers J, Tilokee E, Shemie SD.Can J Anaesth. 2020 Oct 7. doi: 10.1007/s12630-020-01808-z. open access link
CAEP Position Statement - Management of devastating brain injuries in the emergency department: Enhancing neuroprognostication and maintaining the opportunity for organ and tissue donation (June 2020) Healey A, Leeies M, Hrymak C, Chochinov A, Grunau B, Paunovic B, Teitelbaum J, Wilson L, Shemie S
Determination of Brain Death/Death by Neurologic CriteriaThe World Brain Death Project (August 2020) Greer, D; D. Shemie, S.; Lewis, A.; Torrance, S; et al open access link
- Click here to learn more about the implications of the World Brain Death Project on Canadian death determination practices
Maintaining the permanence principle for death during in situ normothermic regional perfusion for donation after circulatory death organ recovery: A United Kingdom and Canadian proposal (January 2020); Manara A, Shemie S, Large S, Healey A, Baker A, Badiwala M, Berman M, Butler A, Chaudhury P, Dark J, Forsythe J, Freed D, Gardiner D, Harvey D, Hornby L, MacLean J, Messer S, Oniscu G, Simpson C, Teitelbaum J, Torrance S, Wilson L, Watson C. open access link
Survey of Canadian intensivists on physician non-referral and family override of deceased organ donation (November 2019); Weiss M, English S, D'Aragon F, Lauzier F, Turgeon A, Dhanani S, McIntyre L, Shemie S, Knoll G, Fergusson D, Anthony S, Haj-Moustafa A, Hartell D, Mohr J, Chassé M. open access link
Ethical Challenges and the Donation Physician Specialist: A Scoping Review. MacDonald SI, Shemie SD. open access link
Barriers and opportunities related to extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Canada: A report from the first meeting of the Canadian ECPR Research Working Group (July 2018) open access link
Ethics Guide Recommendations for Organ-Donation–Focused Physicians Endorsed by the Canadian Medical Association Shemie SD, Simpson C, Blackmer J,MacDonald S,Dhanani S,Torrance S,Byrne P, and on behalf of the Donation Physician Ethics Guide Meeting Participants. open access link
Development of a national minimum data set to monitor deceased organ donation performance in Canada (June 2016); Hornby K, Shemie SD, Appleby A, Dodd N, Gill J, Kim J, Kramer A, Kutsogiannis DJ, Lahaie N, MacLean J, Rehel L, Webster G, Wu J, Scales DC open access link

Leading practices and guidelines for organ donation and transplantation along with accompanying peer reviewed publication can be found here

Reports

PDF copies of the following reports are available by request. Submit a request by sending an email to OTDT@blood.ca, please include the title and use the subject line: PDF Document Request. Additional reports have been archived and are available by request

ECPR for OHCA in Canada: Planning the Research (April 2017)
Opportunities and Barriers for ECPR in Canada (May 2016)
Ethics Guide for Donation Physicians (November 2015)
Environmental Scan of Professional Education for Donation (March 2017)
Report on the consultation: “Donation Physicians in a Coordinated OTDT System" (February 2011)
Report on the ethics consultation (January 2011)
OTDT Professional Survey (February 2011)
Views Toward Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation (Public Survey) (July 2010)

Leading practices and guidelines for deceased donation can be found catalogued here

The COVID‑19 pandemic and organ donation and transplantation: ethical issues

Published October 21, 2021