SickKids named world’s top pediatric hospital

TORONTO – The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has topped a new list ranking the world’s top pediatric hospitals. The list was released by Newsweek and Statista as part of a wider ranking of the best specialized hospitals across the globe.

The magazine says that the rankings are based on the results of a survey “in which tens of thousands of medical professionals were invited to give recommendations in their area of expertise.”

The rankings also factor in accreditation data and patient-reported outcome measures, Newsweek says. The survey was conducted between May and July 2024 and accounts for approximately 90 percent of the criteria used by Newsweek.

“As we’ve celebrated our 150th anniversary this year, I’ve often remarked that the care, research and learning that happen at SickKids are second to none – this ranking reaffirms that,” SickKids CEO Dr. Ronald Cohn (pictured) said in a press release.

The newest list bumps SickKids up to number one from the second spot in last year’s rankings, replacing the Boston Children’s Hospital.

There are three other Canadian hospitals ranked in the top 50 for pediatric care. BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver (#8), Calgary’s Alberta Children’s Hospital (#12), and another Edmonton hospital Stollery Children’s Hospital (#40).

A total of 250 hospitals were ranked in the category.

In their press release, SickKids said “the core of the strategy” is focusing on precision child health, which means “moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to one that is individualized to each patient’s unique characteristics and driving advancements in patient outcomes and fueling discoveries through responsible artificial intelligence adoption.”

The ranking highlighted two areas in which SickKids excelled, neonatology and oncology.

Neonatology is the care of newborn babies, especially ones with medical complications.

Oncology is the study of cancer, and SickKids told CTV News that they have one of the largest departments of its kind in North America. SickKids registers about 275 new cancer cases every year and uses “novel and innovative therapies,” to treat the children with the highest risk cancers through a clinical trials program, it says.

The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre ranked ninth on the list in oncology, while Toronto General Hospital ranked 15th for heart surgery and 24th for cardiology.

Other Toronto hospitals included in the rankings included Mount Sinai Hospital (#27) and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (#48) in neurology. The Krembil Neuroscience Centre, part of the University Health Network, was ranked 28th in neurosurgery.

For its part, SickKids offers more unique programs, services and procedures than any paediatric hospital in the country. It is the sole or largest provider of many medical and surgical programs and services provincially, and at times nationally. SickKids:

• Is Canada’s only provider of more than 90 specialized programs, services and procedures, and Ontario’s only provider of more than 300 specialized programs, services and procedures.
• Is a national leader in paediatric cancer research and is often the first Canadian site to open a clinical trial for new or innovative treatments.
• Conducts more than half of paediatric transplants in Canada, including 75 per cent of liver transplants, 60 per cent of heart transplants, and more than 50 per cent of bone marrow transplants.
• Performs close to 100 per cent of Ontario’s complex paediatric heart surgeries at the SickKids Labatt Family Heart Centre and 95 per cent of Ontario’s paediatric organ and bone marrow transplants at the SickKids Garron Family Cancer Centre.
• Is home to the busiest Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the country and provides leading-edge care to more than 850 critically ill babies a year.
• Is home to the Garry Hurvitz Centre for Brain and Mental Health which has the first and largest paediatric deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation program in Canada, the first and largest multi-disciplinary neurovascular program in Canada dedicated exclusively to children and the only fetal spina bifida surgical program in Canada.
• Has the world’s biggest and most prestigious hands-on cardiac surgical training program, which uses realistic 3D models to train paediatric heart surgeons from around the globe.
• Is the top research-intensive children’s hospital in Canada, among the top three in the world, and home to over 3,000 researchers, trainees and staff who tackle the toughest scientific challenges in child health. We attract global research talent, with over 200 international graduate students and research fellows from almost 50 countries.
• Invests in the next generation of child health leaders. Every year, more than 2,000 medical residents and fellows, and other clinical and corporate students from across Canada and around the world come to SickKids for training.
• Leverages our world-renowned expertise in clinical practice, education and research to improve child health outcomes worldwide. SickKids International has consulted on 27 projects in more than 16 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, developing programs and transforming health delivery systems, improving access to high-quality paediatric care. Our staff have trained more than 15,000 physicians, nurses and allied health professionals and delivered almost 150 nursing education programs to build long-term capability that helps transform care delivery for children around the world.
• Conducts groundbreaking work in 27 countries through the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, informing policies, introducing innovations and partnering locally to train health-care staff.

SickKids Research Institute continues to make major breakthroughs with global implications and publishes more than 2,000 articles a year, garnering thousands of citations in other publications. With seven research programs spanning the spectrum of investigative approaches to health research, SickKids proudly invests in cutting-edge research to drive advancements in child health.

SickKids Learning Institute is a global leader in transformational paediatric education and learning. Last year, our innovative interprofessional simulation program supported almost 10,000 participants from across Canada and around the world in nearly 900 sessions. As we advance the era of Precision Child Health, the Learning Institute will be laser-focused on precision learning, progressive approaches and global collaboration to prepare a future-ready paediatric health-care workforce.