About Us - What We Do
TBI serves as a bridge between the most generous gift of donated tissue and its final recipient.
Promoting Eye & Tissue Donation
Our community-based eye and tissue banks promote the importance of donation in their regions and encourage their constituents to make the decision to donate. This involves outreach events like health fairs, working closely with hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and public education efforts.
Recover Tissue
Once a family makes the decision to donate, TBI technicians are dispatched to recover the tissue. These technicians are certified and highly trained to perform the procedures in a manner that is both respectful to the donor and preserves the safety of the tissue for its eventual recipient.
Prepare and Test Tissue
After recovery, tissue is sent to one of our two TBI Centers of Excellence (link). Eye tissue is sent to The National Eye Bank Center in Memphis, Tennessee and all other tissue (like bones, soft tissue, skin, etc.) is sent to The National Processing Center in San Rafael, California. Once tissue arrives at the Centers, it undergoes rigorous evaluation to assure its safety for transplant. Once cleared, tissue may undergo several further steps of preparation before being sent to the surgeon. Some corneas, for example, are pre-cut for certain transplant procedures, and bone may be machined into specially shaped allografts for the spine.
Distribute Tissue
Once tissue is ready for transplant, TBI distributes it to surgeons and hospitals. When possible, tissue is used for transplant in the region it was recovered from (for example, if a cornea is recovered in New Mexico, TBI will try to find a New Mexico surgeon to use the tissue). If the tissue cannot be used locally, TBI offers it to surgeons in other areas of the country. TBI follows up with all physicians post-surgery to track the results of tissue transplants and monitor outcomes.
