Telephone Consent in Tissue Donation: Effectiveness and Efficiency in Postmortem Tissue Generation

Determinants of Family Consent to Tissue Donation

“…4,6,[17][18][19] We found that FDMs were more likely to consent when approached first in person rather than by telephone; this is consistent with past research examining the use of the telephone in requests for corneal donation. [17][18][19] However, the large number of individuals eligible for tissue donation coupled with the substantial numbers of eligible deaths occurring outside hospitals, make in-person requests often impracticable. Furthermore, Wilson et al 6 found that >90% of families were satisfied with the telephone request process; they and others find that telephone requests can be acceptable for requesting tissue donation.…”

“…Furthermore, Wilson et al 6 found that >90% of families were satisfied with the telephone request process; they and others find that telephone requests can be acceptable for requesting tissue donation. 4,6,[17][18][19] Tissues and organs are also differentiated because tissues are frequently processed and go through several levels of handling before transplantation. As such, some tissue come to resemble a commercial product much more than we might like, given that these are tissue donated freely by deceased individuals.…”

Impact of telephone consent and potential for eye donation in the UK: the Newcastle Eye Centre study

“…9,15,17 Studies have shown that the face-to-face acceptance rate Potential for eye donation in the UK DSJ Ting et al could range between 42 and 82%, 9,15,17 which is usually higher than the telephone consent acceptance rate. 14,15 It is however interesting to note that the acceptance rate of telephone consent was higher (68%) than the conventional face-to-face interview method (40%) in our study, which is contrasted with the literature. One possible explanation was that the relatives of the deceased were provided with more time and flexibility to make the decision in their own familiarised environment during telephone consent.…”

“…Without telephone consent, 52 (47%) out of the 111 donors would have been excluded in 2010 in Newcastle. Similarly, Rodríguez-Villar et al 14 and Gain et al 15 demonstrated that telephone consent could potentially increase the overall eye donation rate by 37% and 90%, respectively.…”

“…To circumvent this particular problem, telephone consent has been introduced in several countries with reportedly great success. 14,15 In 2007, the Newcastle Eye Retrieval Scheme (NERS), which serves as 1 of the 10 eye retrieval schemes funded by the National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in the UK, introduced telephone consent with the aim of circumventing barriers of face-to-face consenting and consequently improving the eye donation rate in the North East of England, including Newcastle upon Tyne. The objectives of our study were threefold: first, to investigate the impact of introduction of telephone consent on eye donation in Newcastle; second, to describe the changing trend of eye donation from 2006 to 2010 in Newcastle; and finally, to identify potential areas for improvement in eye donation in Newcastle.…”