Clinical Perfusionist

Run the heart-lung machine that keeps a patient alive during open-heart surgery. A science degree, a 2-year master's, and one of the smallest health professions in Canada.

Typical pay: $85,000a year
Time to qualify: 6 to 7 yearsafter high school
Demand: Good
Licence needed: Nono licence to hold

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Quick answers

How much does a clinical perfusionist make in Canada?

The median pay is about $85,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $63,000 at the lower end to about $106,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become a clinical perfusionist in Canada?

6 to 7 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become a clinical perfusionist?

$70,000 to $82,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a licence to work as a clinical perfusionist in Canada?

No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.

What is the job outlook for a clinical perfusionist in Canada?

Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Clinical Perfusionist salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What perfusionists make

Median

$85,000

Lower end

$63,000

Upper end

$106,000

Job Bank's national median is $41 an hour, about $85,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower and upper ends are Job Bank's low and high wages for everyone in the group, $30.16 and $51 an hour. Job Bank pools perfusionists with respiratory therapists and cardiopulmonary technologists under one code, and perfusionists are the smallest and most specialized group in it. These figures describe the whole pooled group, not perfusionists alone.

Where pay is highest

$48.00 an hour

The median in Alberta for the pooled group, the highest in Canada

Ontario ($44.66) and Manitoba ($44.00) follow, and New Brunswick is lowest at $37.10. Every perfusionist job is in a hospital on a union or professional grid.

On-call is a big part of it

Callback and standby pay

Paid on top of base pay in a busy heart centre

Emergency heart surgery and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a long-term heart-lung support machine) happen at night and on weekends. Perfusionists carry a pager and get called in.

What it costs to get there

Bachelor of science (4 years): $7,000 to $10,000 a year
Master's in perfusion (2 years): About $41,000 total for the whole program at Michener in Toronto
CSCP (Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion) certification exam: $950, plus a $350 associate membership to be eligible
Relocation for clinical placement: Anywhere in Canada, at your own cost

Roughly, all in

$70,000 to $82,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

This is two programs back to back: a four year bachelor of science degree, then a two year master's in perfusion that costs about $41,000 in total at Michener in Toronto. The low end is the science degree at cheaper provincial tuition, the master's, the $950 certification exam and the $350 membership needed to sit it. The high end is the same path with the science degree at higher tuition. The master's is expensive and there is no way to work full time through it, and clinical placements can be anywhere in Canada at your own cost.

Roughly $70,000 in tuition over 6 years. The master's is expensive and unpaid. Job Bank expects a strong risk of labour shortage for the pooled group nationally from 2024 to 2033.

Benefits you usually get

Defined-benefit pension
HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) in Ontario hospitals. Similar plans elsewhere.
Extended health and dental
On-call and callback pay
Paid on top of base pay when you are called in.
Paid vacation
Typically 3 to 4 weeks to start, more with seniority.

How to become a clinical perfusionist in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a clinical perfusionist, step by step

A degree first, then a small, intense master's program with a lot of time in the operating room.

1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry, physics and calculus. You need marks for a science degree.
2
Bachelor of science
4 years
Any science major with anatomy, physiology, physics, chemistry and calculus. Michener wants a GPA (grade point average) of at least 3.0. Registered nurses and respiratory therapists with a science degree and a year of critical care can also apply.
3
Perfusion master's
2 years
Three programs in Canada: Michener in Toronto, Université de Montréal, and BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology). Michener's is a 2-year master of science with a Casper test at admission and 32 weeks of clinical placement anywhere in Canada.
4
Write the CSCP (Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion) exam
After graduation
Held once a year in November at test centres. Pass it to become a CCP (certified clinical perfusionist).
5
Get hired and keep certified
Ongoing
Hospitals hire only certified perfusionists. Recertification requires ongoing clinical activity and education.

High school courses that help you become a clinical perfusionist

Biology
Cardiac physiology is the core of the job.
Physics
Pumps, pressure, flow and gas exchange.
Chemistry
Blood gases and drugs on bypass.
Calculus and functions
Required for the science degree and used in flow calculations.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 6 to 7
Program admission: Very competitive. Only a small number of seats a year across three programs.
Total cost: About $70,000 to $82,000, including the exam
Paid while training?: No

Certified, not licensed

No province has a licensing college for perfusionists. Instead the CSCP (Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion) runs the national exam and keeps the register of certified members, and hospitals will only hire people on it. The credential is CCP (certified clinical perfusionist). Because it is national, moving between provinces is simple. Quebec graduates train in French at Université de Montréal and write the same national exam.

Quebec routeIn Quebec? The route is different. 2 more cards.

The path in Quebec

Quebec has one perfusion school, in French: a master's degree at Université de Montréal, taken after a science bachelor's.

1
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
2
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1), offered in English at Dawson and the other English colleges. It leads into university science.
3
Science bachelor's degree
3 years
For example Montréal's 90 credit bachelor's in biomedical sciences. You need an average of at least 3.0 out of 4.3, plus two pharmacology courses, which you can also take in your first term.
4
Apply to the master's
The year before
Deadline 1 February for a fall start. You watch a heart operation with one of the program's perfusionists, then have an interview in French. Either can rule you out.
5
Master's in extracorporeal perfusion
1 to 2 years
45 credits, full time, with simulation labs and hospital internships. Taught in French, and you must read English well. Quebec residents paid $2,260.42 per 15 credit term in 2025 to 2026.
6
National certification
After graduating
Write the exams of the CSCP (Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion), as everywhere in Canada. The program prepares you for them.

No professional order yet in Quebec

Clinical perfusionists in Quebec are not yet members of a professional order. In June 2026 the Quebec government announced work to bring them into the OPIQ (Ordre professionnel des inhalothérapeutes du Québec, the Quebec order of respiratory therapists). If that goes ahead, you will need that order's permit to work, so check its website before you graduate.

What helps you get ahead as a clinical perfusionist

Things you don't need, but that help.

Extra skills that open doors

ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation)
Running long-term heart and lung support in the intensive care unit, sometimes for weeks.
Pediatric and congenital perfusion
Bypass for babies and children at a handful of centres. Tiny circuits, high stakes.
Ventricular assist devices
Implanted heart pumps that patients go home with. Perfusionists help run those programs.
Organ perfusion for transplant
Keeping donor hearts, lungs and livers alive on a machine between donor and recipient.

Nice-to-haves

Time in an intensive care unit
Nursing, respiratory therapy or volunteering. Shows you can function around critically ill people.
Calm under pressure
When the pump stops, you have seconds.
Mechanical aptitude
You assemble, prime and troubleshoot the circuit yourself.

What being a clinical perfusionist is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

What a clinical perfusionist does day to day

In by 6:30am to build and prime the bypass circuit for the first case. When the surgeon is ready, you take over the patient's heart and lungs: the blood leaves the body, runs through your pump and oxygenator, and returns. For the next 1 to 4 hours you manage flow, pressure, temperature, blood gases, drugs and clotting while the heart is stopped, and then you slowly hand the job back to the heart. One or two cases a day, then cleaning, charting and equipment checks. Some days you sit with an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) patient in intensive care instead.

The honest pros and cons of being a clinical perfusionist

The good

You literally keep a person alive with your hands
Job Bank sees a strong risk of labour shortage through 2033
Hospital pension, union grid and on-call pay
Deep expertise that surgeons rely on

The hard parts

Six to seven years of school, with an expensive master's
Very few seats a year; many strong applicants are turned away
On-call means nights, weekends and cancelled plans
Zero room for error, and long stretches of intense concentration

Work life

Typical hours: Weekday surgical days plus regular on-call
Remote work: None
Physical demand: Low to moderate. Long hours on your feet, heavy equipment.
Unionized: Usually, in hospitals

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a clinical perfusionist

Things people don't tell you.

Three schools in the country

Canada trains perfusionists at just three programs: Michener in Toronto, Université de Montréal, and BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) in Vancouver. Each takes a small class. BCIT says it admitted 1 in 6 applicants in 2022.

One exam day a year

The CSCP (Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion) certification exam is held once a year, in November, at test centres in Canada and the US. The 2026 sitting is November 2. Miss the July 1 application deadline and you wait a full year.

A Canadian cooled the heart first

Toronto surgeon Wilfred Bigelow pioneered cooling the body to slow the heart for surgery in the early 1950s, work that helped make open-heart operations possible before reliable heart-lung machines existed.

The heart is stopped on purpose

During bypass the perfusionist delivers a cold potassium solution that stops the heart completely so the surgeon can work on it. Restarting it at the end is a normal part of the day.

How a clinical perfusionist compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

Highest paying healthcare careers in Canada62 of 101

More health careers in Canada

Diagnostics and lab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.

Where these numbers come from

Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.