Passport for Care: A Transformative Step for Pediatric Cancer Survivors Across Canada

Each year in Canada, there are over 1500 children who face a cancer diagnosis – but the journey doesn’t end when treatment does. Survivors of childhood cancer need lifelong follow-up care tailored to their unique treatment history. In Ontario alone, more than 14,000 pediatric cancer survivors need reliable, up-to-date, and accessible information about their health. That’s where Passport for Care (PFC) comes in – a powerful digital platform with the potential to transform how survivors across Canada manage their long-term health.

Passport for Care is a secure, web-based tool that delivers personalized survivorship care plans to childhood cancer survivors. Developed by Texas Children’s Hospital in partnership with the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), it offers guidance based on each survivor’s treatment history and the most current clinical evidence about how best to care of their long-term physical and mental health.

“Survivors can access their survivorship care plans anytime, from anywhere, and share them with their care providers – whether that’s a family doctor, specialist, or caregiver in the emergency department. This is especially important in Canada, where survivors often transition between pediatric, primary care providers, and adult health care systems without consistent support”, says Sapna Oberoi, Co-Lead of the Psychosocial & Survivorship research theme and Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist, CancerCare Manitoba.

Unlike static paper survivorship care plans, PFC updates automatically based on the latest COG survivorship guidelines which are reviewed and updated every 5 years. If new research changes follow-up recommendations, survivors will see the updated advice in a timely manner even if they are not followed by the oncology clinics immediately. PFC converts complex survivorship guidelines into an algorithm-driven, user-friendly tool which is based on a survivor’s specific treatments – chemotherapy drugs, radiation, and surgeries.

Through ACCESS’ strategic partnership, POGO is taking the lead on coordinating and implementing PFC in Ontario. With 40% of Canada’s pediatric cancer cases treated in Ontario, POGO brings deep survivor engagement, privacy, and regulatory expertise, and long-term survivorship care leadership. Importantly, this pilot project in Ontario will build a bridge between the Cancer in Young People in Canada Data Tool (CYP-C) registry and the PFC system to automate data access and create processes that will allow for an eventual Canada wide implementation.  “Coming together as one team, this partnership is a shared commitment to what survivors have long asked for: a unified, accessible, and personalized survivorship care system”, says Donna Johnston, Medical Director, POGO.

“Survivors and families played a central role in shaping this initiative through ACCESS-led town halls and focus groups. Their message was clear: existing systems are fragmented, outdated, and leave too many without the guidance they need”, says Paul Nathan, Co-Lead of the Psychosocial & Survivorship research theme and Director, Aftercare Program, Division of Haematology/Oncology, SickKids. “For example, Ontario’s previous paper-based care plans quickly became obsolete as guidelines changed. In contrast, PFC gives survivors control over their health journey. They’re no longer dependent on a specific clinic or provider to know what comes next – the information is in their hands.”

Considering the future of survivor care in Canada, Passport for Care is a game-changer. It will help long-term monitoring regardless of province or provider, give survivors the tools and knowledge to manage their own health, and bridge systemic gaps in follow-up, especially for discharged or underserved survivors.

With more than 50,000 survivors across Canada, PFC has the potential to set a new gold standard for pediatric cancer survivorship in Canada – not just in the years after treatment, but for life. Together, POGO, ACCESS and our collaborators across Canada are working together to make accessible a survivor-led, data-informed, and equity-driven system to support every childhood cancer survivor, wherever they are.