Clinical Research Directory

Improving Deceased Organ Donation and Transplantation Using the Donation Advisor Clinical Decision Support Tool

Every year, thousands of Canadians receive life-saving, cost-effective organ transplants, while thousands more still wait or die because not enough organs are available. Patients with non-recoverable illnesses, who are undergoing withdrawal of life sustaining measures, can donate their organs when they die by a process called donation after death determination by circulatory criteria (DCC), previously known as donation after circulatory determined death (DCD). However, over 30% of all DCC attempts are unsuccessful because patients do not die within the time frame required for healthy organ retrieval and prolonged exposure to low oxygen during the dying process renders organs unsuitable for transplantation. Predicting successful DCC is difficult and leads to uncertainty in the clinical community. To address this issue, the investigators have developed a clinical decision support tool called Donation Advisor (DA) designed to assist with donation and transplantation decision making. The investigators are ready to implement DA in at least four hospitals in Ontario and evaluate its impact in these hospitals. An additional hospital will be participating solely as a transplant centre. The investigators believe use of DA will reduce unsuccessful DCC attempts, enhance family experience of donation, optimize system costs, and improve transplant outcomes.