Medical Device Education: Use of Human Tissue for Medical Research and Education: Is It Time to Regulate the Industry?

I work at Science Care in Phoenix, Arizona. We are one of the largest American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB)-accredited non-transplant tissue banks. Only a few of the organizations that supply human tissue for use in medical education and research are accredited. As a former professor and medical researcher I feel all organizations that supply human tissue for research and education should be accredited.

Why is this important? Accredited organizations have rigorous procedures they must follow to ensure the safety of the individuals that use the tissue (and the staff in their employ) and the quality of tissue that is procured. Organizations that are accredited have external validation of their businesses practices to confirm that they are safe and that the vendors they use have been evaluated and are trustworthy. Perhaps if there were increased regulation that required all organizations that supply human tissue be accredited, human remains would not have ended up in a truck at a Kansas medical waste facility as reported by Maria Sudekum Fisher of the Associated Press on March 30th.

What do you think? Is accreditation the answer or are things ok the way they are?

The views expressed in this Blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Science Care.

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