Press Room

Tissue Banks International and the Northern California Transplant Bank Announce Partnership with California Transplant Donor Network
Collaboration Based on Successful Model of Consolidated Tissue Recovery Programs that Better Serve Donor Families and the Medical Community

March 16, 2010, BALTIMORE, MD… Tissue Banks International (TBI) and California Transplant Donor Network (CTDN) have launched a new partnership to significantly enhance the ability of both CTDN and TBI to service the donor families and medical communities in the region. Under the agreement, CTDN will direct donor outreach and tissue recovery on behalf of TBI’s regional eye and tissue bank, the Northern California Transplant Bank (NCTB).

 

After donation occurs, NCTB staff will work with CTDN to expeditiously complete donor documentation requirements. Concurrently, the gifted eye, musculoskeletal , skin, and other allograft tissue will be evaluated, processed, and distributed by NCTB as quickly as possible.

 

NCTB will remain an active member of the Northern California transplant community, and TBI has appointed David Butters as Executive Director, NCTB, to oversee its activities in the region. Butters has held leadership positions at several eye and blood banks, most recently serving as Executive Director of the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin.

 

The agreement will offer hospitals in Northern California better efficiency in referral, consent, and recovery processes. Hospitals will have to make only one phone call to refer potential donors and only one organization’s recovery team needs to be dispatched to recover all consented eyes, organs, and tissue. These efficiencies will offer significant time savings, allowing deceased donors to be more quickly released to funeral homes for memorial services.

 

Perhaps most importantly, the collaboration between CTDN and TBI means only one organization will approach donor families to obtain consent to recover organs, eyes, and tissue. This will make the donation process easier for families at a sensitive time.

 

"This collaboration is the third large-scale OPO partnership TBI has entered into over the last five years," said Gerald Cole, President and CEO of TBI referring to TBI’s previous initiatives with the New England Organ Bank and OneLegacy in Southern California. "With CTDN, we are excited about bringing the same streamlined operations to Northern California that ultimately benefit the donor families, hospitals, funeral homes, and tissue recipients we are here to serve."

 

"We look forward to a productive partnership with TBI," said Cindy Siljestrom, Chief Executive Officer of CTDN. "This successful collaboration will allow us to maximize the strengths of our organizations and enable us to provide more efficient and family-centered services throughout Northern California."

About the California Transplant Donor Network

PThe California Transplant Donor Network saves and improves lives by facilitating organ and tissue donation for transplantation. The Transplant Network helps 160 hospitals in 40 Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada counties offer the option of organ and tissue donation to families whose loved ones have died, and provides public education with the hope that every resident will become a donor. The Transplant Network is federally designated as the region’s organ recovery organization. For more information about CTDN, visit www.ctdn.org or call (888) 570-9400.

About Tissue Banks International

Non-profit TBI/Tissue Banks International, founded as a single eye bank in 1962, today is a far-reaching network of medical eye and tissue banks throughout the United States and around the world. TBI’s mission is "to relieve human suffering by facilitating the donation, retrieval, processing and equitable distribution of corneal and other cadaveric tissue for transplantation, research and other medical needs worldwide." For more information from TBI, visit www.tbionline.org.