HeartWise Observatory.
The HeartWise Observatory is a youth-focused research and knowledge hub dedicated to understanding the heart-health experiences, needs, and challenges of young people. By collecting community insights, sharing accessible research, and highlighting important trends, the Observatory helps turn evidence into stronger education, advocacy, and future HeartWise initiatives.
- Canada
- Pilot jurisdiction
- 1 report
- Understand · 2026
- Aug 31, 2026
- Evidence cutoff
- 28 sources
- Every number cited
Track. Understand. Act.
Three connected parts — data, research, and policy. Nothing here is invented, every number carries its source, and where the evidence runs out, the Observatory says so.
Youth-focused, youth-led
Research framed around the heart-health experiences, needs, and challenges of young people — and driven by them.
Verified, always
The first phase draws only on existing published data from trusted public sources, cited every time.
Built to expand
Canada is the pilot jurisdiction; the focus can move to a new country without rebuilding a thing.
Explore the evidence.
Three things from the 2026 report you can play with. Each carries the report’s own source and limitation — the Observatory never shows a number without them.
Explore 01
Age bands do not line up across Canada’s cardiovascular evidence sources
Drag the slider to any age and see which of the seven Canadian evidence sources include it — and whether it falls inside the Observatory’s own 12–29 window. No two sources measure the same ages, which is the point.
A 17-year-old appears in 5 of 7 sources — inside the Observatory’s 12–29 window.
- includes a 17-year-oldObservatory population of interest (this report)12 to 29
- includes a 17-year-oldYouth cardiovascular health index12 to 19
- includes a 17-year-oldIndigenous youth risk-factor surveys (most indicators)12 to 17
- includes a 17-year-oldIndigenous youth risk-factor surveys (some indicators)12 to 24
- includes a 17-year-oldSudden cardiac arrest, competitive sport (Ontario)12 to 45
- –does not include a 17-year-oldNational chronic disease surveillance (adults)20 to 90 and over
- –does not include a 17-year-oldSports-related sudden cardiac arrest (multi-province)18 to 85
- includes a 17-year-oldNunavik Inuit health survey16 to 90 and over
Source References 1, 6, 8, 13–15 (see Master Statistics Ledger and full reference list).
Important limitation Illustrates incompatibility of age bands across sources; does not itself represent a new statistic.
Explore 02
School cardiac readiness, province by province
Tap a province or territory for the status of its public-access AED policy and its school AED / CPR-AED curriculum, as identified by the review.
- present — confirmed legislation, regulation, or official mandate
- partial — funding program, non-binding policy, or partial coverage
- unclear — conflicting or ambiguous information
- not found — no clear, current, official source located by this review
British Columbia
- Public-access AED policy
- Evidence confidence: partial
ministerial order and ministry policy, not standalone legislation; secondary school target date passed, elementary/middle target not yet due as of evidence cutoff
- School AED / CPR-AED curriculum
- Evidence confidence: present
mandatory Grade 10 curriculum component
Not a scorecard. Categorical status only — no score or ranking is implied — and it should be reverified against current official sources before any operational use.
Show the full table and the report’s definitions
Categorical status only. PRESENT indicates confirmed legislation, regulation, or official mandate; PARTIAL indicates a funding program, non-binding policy, or requirement covering only part of the relevant schools or age range; NOT IDENTIFIED indicates this review could not locate a clear, current, official source, which reflects a limit of this review rather than confirmation that no policy exists; UNCLEAR indicates conflicting or ambiguous information. Each of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories is listed separately; none are grouped. This matrix reflects the most recent identified official source as of the evidence cutoff of August 31, 2026, and should be independently reverified before any operational use. No numerical score or provincial ranking is implied or provided, and a PRESENT rating describes a formal policy requirement only, not confirmed on-the-ground implementation.
| Jurisdiction | Public-access AED policy | School AED / CPR-AED curriculum |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | Evidence confidence: partial ministerial order and ministry policy, not standalone legislation; secondary school target date passed, elementary/middle target not yet due as of evidence cutoff ref. 27 | Evidence confidence: present mandatory Grade 10 curriculum component ref. 27 |
| Alberta | Evidence confidence: unclear this review found indications of a public-access defibrillation funding program but could not trace it to a citable, current official source | Evidence confidence: unclear |
| Saskatchewan | Evidence confidence: unclear | Evidence confidence: unclear this review found indications of a school-focused cardiac-readiness initiative but could not trace it to a citable, current official source |
| Manitoba | Evidence confidence: present Defibrillator Public Access Act ref. 24 | Evidence confidence: partial schools among designated public locations ref. 24 |
| Ontario | Evidence confidence: partial Defibrillator Registration and Public Access Act enacted; staged implementation ref. 25 | Evidence confidence: unclear |
| Quebec | Evidence confidence: not identified no public-access legislation located | Evidence confidence: unclear this review found indications of a school AED installation initiative but could not trace it to a citable, current official source |
| New Brunswick | Evidence confidence: not identified | Evidence confidence: not identified |
| Nova Scotia | Evidence confidence: present Defibrillators Act ref. 26 | Evidence confidence: unclear this review found indications of school AED funding but could not trace it to a citable, current official source |
| Prince Edward Island | Evidence confidence: not identified no public-access legislation located | Evidence confidence: present mandatory secondary curriculum component ref. 28 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | Evidence confidence: not identified | Evidence confidence: not identified |
| Yukon | Evidence confidence: not identified | Evidence confidence: not identified |
| Northwest Territories | Evidence confidence: not identified | Evidence confidence: not identified |
| Nunavut | Evidence confidence: not identified | Evidence confidence: not identified |
Not a scorecard. Categorical status only — reverify against current official sources before any operational use.
Source Understand: Canada 2026, Investigation 06 — Canadian Cardiac Emergency Readiness Policy, by Jurisdiction (References 24–28).
Important limitation Categorical status only. PRESENT indicates confirmed legislation, regulation, or official mandate; PARTIAL indicates a funding program, non-binding policy, or requirement covering only part of the relevant schools or age range; NOT IDENTIFIED indicates this review could not locate a clear, current, official source, which reflects a limit of this review rather than confirmation that no policy exists; UNCLEAR indicates conflicting or ambiguous information. Each of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories is listed separately; none are grouped. This matrix reflects the most recent identified official source as of the evidence cutoff of August 31, 2026, and should be independently reverified before any operational use. No numerical score or provincial ranking is implied or provided, and a PRESENT rating describes a formal policy requirement only, not confirmed on-the-ground implementation.
Explore 03
Canada at a glance — Behind the Number
The six figures the report leads with. Open any tile to see exactly where the number comes from and how far it can be trusted.
16.6%
met criteria for ideal cardiovascular health
Canadian youth aged 12 to 19 · Canada (nationally representative sample) · Data collected 2009 to 2010
Behind the number
- Source
- Maclagan et al., Canadian Heart Health Strategy and Action Plan cardiovascular health assessment (Reference 6).
- Definition
- Share meeting criteria for “ideal cardiovascular health”, a composite index drawing on the American Heart Association’s concept, applied to Canadians aged 12 to 19.
- Population
- Canadian youth aged 12 to 19
- Geography
- Canada (nationally representative sample)
- Reference year
- Data collected 2009 to 2010
- Limitation
- The original measurement is credible; the concern is its age. No comparable, more recent national measure was identified, so whether it still describes today’s youth is unknown (Observatory Finding 06).
8.21
per 1,000 live births
congenital heart disease lifetime birth prevalence
Live births · Quebec only · Data to 2005; published 2014
Behind the number
- Source
- Marelli et al., Quebec Congenital Heart Disease Registry (Reference 3).
- Definition
- Lifetime prevalence of congenital heart disease per 1,000 live births.
- Population
- Live births
- Geography
- Quebec only
- Reference year
- Data to 2005; published 2014
- Limitation
- The strongest Canadian congenital heart disease evidence describes one province, not the country. No pan-Canadian registry exists (Data Gap 02).
61%
no cardiology follow-up after age 18
People born with congenital heart disease in Quebec in 1983 · Quebec · Cohort born 1983, tracked with data to roughly 2005
Behind the number
- Source
- Mackie et al., Quebec population-based birth cohort (Reference 19).
- Definition
- Share of people born with congenital heart disease who had not received cardiology follow-up in the years after their eighteenth birthday.
- Population
- People born with congenital heart disease in Quebec in 1983
- Geography
- Quebec
- Reference year
- Cohort born 1983, tracked with data to roughly 2005
- Limitation
- Decades old and specific to Quebec: strong evidence that this discontinuity can and did happen, not a current national prevalence figure (Observatory Finding 03).
0.76
per 100,000 athlete-years
sudden cardiac arrest during competitive sport
Competitive-sport participants aged 12 to 45 · Ontario · 2009 to 2014
Behind the number
- Source
- Landry et al., Rescu Epistry, Ontario (Reference 8).
- Definition
- Incidence of sudden cardiac arrest during participation in competitive sport, per 100,000 athlete-years, with survival to hospital discharge.
- Population
- Competitive-sport participants aged 12 to 45
- Geography
- Ontario
- Reference year
- 2009 to 2014
- Limitation
- Ontario-specific and spanning well past what most people mean by youth. It should not be generalized into a single “Canadian youth sudden cardiac arrest rate” (Data Gap 05).
66%
of the Quebec CHD population are now adults
People living with congenital heart disease · Quebec · As of 2010
Behind the number
- Source
- Marelli et al., Quebec Congenital Heart Disease Registry (Reference 3).
- Definition
- Share of the total congenital heart disease population who are adults.
- Population
- People living with congenital heart disease
- Geography
- Quebec
- Reference year
- As of 2010
- Limitation
- One province. Used in the report to illustrate the demographic shift behind Investigation 5, not as a national figure.
~60,000
out-of-hospital cardiac arrests per year (all ages)
All ages · Canada · 2024 report, drawing on national resuscitation registry evidence
Behind the number
- Source
- Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Every Second Counts, 2024 (Reference 23).
- Definition
- Estimated annual out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, with survival of roughly 1 in 10.
- Population
- All ages
- Geography
- Canada
- Reference year
- 2024 report, drawing on national resuscitation registry evidence
- Limitation
- National context only, not a youth statistic. The difference from the earlier ~40,000 estimate reflects changes in how events are counted, not necessarily more events.
Source Understand: Canada 2026, Executive Observatory Brief (References 3, 6, 8, 19, 23).
Important limitation These are not a single dashboard: they measure different things in different populations at different times, and are presented with population, geography, and data year intact.
The research report.
Seven investigations, six findings that survived the evidence test, and a register of what Canada cannot yet see — written to be read by anyone, not just researchers.
Understand · Canada 2026 · First edition, pilot report
What Canada knows, and does not yet know, about the cardiovascular health of its young people.
39 pages · evidence cutoff August 31, 2026. Read it in the HeartWise reader, or download the PDF.
The policy report.
Where the evidence becomes directions — organized by how strong the evidence is, including what HeartWise deliberately will not recommend yet.
Act · Policy report
Coming soon.
The Policy report will turn the Understand findings into evidence-tiered directions, followed by a tracker for the policies they point at. It is being written now; the four tiers below are the seed, taken from the 2026 report.
Tier 1 · Evidence-supported opportunities
Tier 2 · Promising directions requiring further evaluation
Tier 3 · Research and measurement priorities
Tier 4 · Areas where HeartWise should not recommend action yet
Partner with the Observatory.
Researchers, clinicians, health authorities, sponsors, and media: the 2027 edition’s research priorities are already named. Help answer them.