An Ethically Sustainable Model for Anatomic Gifting at a Non‐Medical School
Authors: Cope Janet M. , Bennett Cindy C. , Balilionis Gytis , Person Dianne M. 
Published: June 2021

Background

As the number of health care education programs, fresh tissue labs, research opportunities, and anatomy education programs rises so does the need for human donor resources.1 Most US medical schools rely on anatomical gift programs (AGPs) for donors to support curricular needs. Physician Assistant (PA) and Physical Therapy (PT) education programs rely heavily on medical schools and state anatomy boards for these needs, while very few have in‐house willed body programs.2,3

In 2016, Elon University became one of very few non‐medical schools to have its own in‐house AGP to meet the anatomy curricular needs of its PT, PA, and undergraduate biology programs.

Purpose

Describe the costs and benefits involved in developing a non‐medical school, in‐house anatomical gift program to support the curricula for PT, PA and biology education.

Methods

Data on public education outreach, registrant demographics, and benefits to curricula are reported. Cost/benefit analysis is presented for the first year of the program.

Results

Elon University's curricular need for full enrollment is 19 donors per year. Within one year of opening donor enrollment the program has registered 90 participants, 9 of whom have deceased (7 female and 2 male donors; average age at time of death 74.4) and will support anatomy education in 2018. At the time of writing, program registrants include 62% female (avg 72.8 yrs) and 36% male (avg 75.5 yrs) registrants. All donations are first‐person consent.

In the past year the AGP Director has visited 65 venues in a 45‐mile radius of campus (n=1520 participants) to provide educational outreach on anatomic gifting. This equates to a 6% return in registration from educational outreach efforts. Registrants (n=82) report reasons for donating as: contributing to student learning 68.3%; contributing to medical research 17%; doing something good 11%; and giving back to Elon 9.8%.

Cost for in‐house donor preparation (with outsourcing for donor transport/document filing) is $965 / donor excluding personnel time. Other costs include a full‐time AGP director salary, cost of faculty/lab manager training in anatomical embalming, and $32,000 to outfit the anatomy lab prep room with donor storage, hydraulic lift, embalming table, and embalming unit. Benefits include sustainable and ethical support of anatomy education on our campus with first person, consent driven donation and access to donor‐determined health, social, and occupational information.

The university and surrounding community have been involved in the AGP's development from the onset. Start‐up costs are phased in to accommodate growth of the AGP. Anatomy faculty/staff are invested in the success of the AGP and contribute to policy development, outreach, and donor care. Students have been involved since the program's conception to offer insight and support educational outreach.

Discussion/Conclusions

Thus far in implementation the program's costs are outweighed by its projected long‐term benefits. Curricular needs are supported at nearly 50% in the first year. A team approach has been successful, with faculty, staff, and students contributing to the development and operation of the AGP. Administrative/community support are essential to a successful program. Registrants' reasons for donation are in keeping with current cultural trends to support education and research. Cost/benefit analysis of the program will continue.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.