eLearning: Tissues

Increasing tissue donation in deaths occurring out of hospital

Welcome to the Canadian Blood Services continuing education registration page

Our education portal offers the following course: Increasing Tissue Donation in Deaths Occurring Out of Hospital

To register, click here. Once registered, you will receive a link to the course portal.  

Module 1:  Program introduction
Module 2:  How the medicolegal community can support donation
Module 3:  Donation: The process
Module 4:  Building collaborative relationships

Approximately 50 per cent of deaths occur outside of hospital and fall within the jurisdictions of medical examiners and coroners. A large number of people who die outside of hospital are prime candidates for tissue donation, yet only a small percentage are identified and referred to donation organizations.

This course instructs coroners, medical examiners, forensic pathologists and death investigators how to identify and refer donation candidates to tissue and eye donation organizations. The course may also prove helpful to law enforcement agencies, emergency health services, funeral companies, eye and tissue banks and donation organizations.

Topics:

  • The donation process
  • The potential impact of donation on death investigation
  • The steps to make a referral
  • Effective requesting 
  • The links between the donation process and the medicolegal process
  • The physical and logistical impacts of donation
  • The potential role a funeral professional can play in funeral pre-planning as well as supporting the donation process
  • Collaborative relationships with donation and recovery organizations
  • Professional guidelines and support tools
  • Donation and recovery organizations

Canadian Blood Services thanks the following for helping to develop this course: Biotissue, Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, New Brunswick Coroner Service, Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Manitoba, Ontario Ministry of Justice, Saskatchewan Transplant, Tissue Bank Manitoba and Trillium Gift of Life.