White Paper – Information Sharing Between Medicolegal Death Investigation Offices And Organ And Tissue Recovery Organizations

• NCJ Number: 308615
• Date Published: December 2023
• Length: 2 pages
• Grant Number(s): 15PNIJ-21-GK-02192-MUMU
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Forensic Technology Center of Excellence, Fiscal Year 2021

Annotation

This brief recommends guidelines for information sharing between medicolegal death investigation offices and organ and tissue recovery organizations.

Abstract

This publication outlines priority recommendations for information sharing between medicolegal death investigation offices and organ and tissue recovery organizations. On any given day, more than 100,000 people are waiting for organ donation in the United States. With the help and lifesaving work of organ and tissue recovery organizations, a single organ donor can save up to eight lives while one tissue donor can improve 75 lives. Many potential donors fall under the jurisdiction of medicolegal death investigation offices; therefore these offices serve a critical role in organ and tissue donation processes. It is imperative to proactively establish cooperative relationships and information sharing between organ and tissue recovery organizations and medicolegal death investigation offices to ensure the best possible outcome for patients, families, and recovery organizations, and medicolegal death investigation offices. Federal laws and regulations have been enacted for the U.S. organ and tissue donation process.