81 - Whole-Body Donation: Anatomy Educators’ Plans to Donate and Recommendations for Their Loved Ones

Poster Board Number: 81
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Introduction: Whole-body donors (WBD) are essential to teaching human gross anatomy to various student populations. As such, anatomical donation programs have emerged to provide ethically obtained WBD to colleges and universities. Anatomy educators are intimately associated with WBD programs, as they may be deeply engaged in the whole-body donation process at their institutions and they rely on donors for teaching and research. A handful of studies have explored anatomy educators’ willingness to donate their body to an anatomical donation program. However, none of these studies have been conducted in the United States or Canada. Additionally, there are no studies that assess the level of support anatomy educators have towards a family member or close friend donating their body to an anatomical donation program. By exploring this gap, results may show how working with WBD affects the level of support anatomy educators have towards body donation, depending on the prospective donor. Understanding this is important for maintaining public trust of body donation programs and the anatomy educators prospective donors work with prior to death.
Methods: To address this gap in the literature, an anonymous questionnaire was distributed using online forums on frequented by anatomy educators, like Anatomy Connected. Anatomy educators were asked to voluntarily complete the online questionnaire consisting of demographic information and open-ended questions to explain their willingness to donate their own body and their level of support for a loved one donating their body to a body donation program. All methods were completed according to the protocol approved by the OU Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine IRB (IRB #22-E-243).
Results: Preliminary data demonstrates that forty-four anatomy educators have responded to the questionnaire. These participants have an average of 17.9 years of experience working with anatomical donors and 27.3% are directly involved in the body donation program at their institution. 45.5% of them currently plan to donate their body to a body donation program while 52% would recommend body donation to their immediate family members. Data collection is ongoing. Complete quantitative and qualitative analysis will occur after completion of the data collection.
Conclusion: To continue to support gross anatomy education, public trust in body donation programs remains crucial. The results of this study will highlight the perspectives of individuals who are intimately engaged with whole-body donation and reveal how these anatomists discuss these perspectives with those closest to them.