Tissue donation interviews: lots of variety, room for improvement

In 2020, the new donor law was introduced in the Netherlands. New in this is the "no objection" donor registration, which occurs automatically if someone does not pass on an explicit choice themselves. In legal terms, "no objection" means the same as "yes. The new donor law also changes the doctor's role in the donation discussion: whereas previously, in the case of a potential donor without donor registration, the doctor asked the next of kin for a decision, he or she must now communicate registration according to the donor registry. Previous research has shown that physicians experience a sense of conflict of interest between the importance of donation, the delivery of organs and tissues, and care for the grieving family. No research has been conducted on the experiences of Dutch physicians outside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in conducting tissue donation interviews in the new context. Therefore, the authors investigated the question of how physicians outside the ICU experience conducting tissue donation interviews.

Read about the results of the study in the article by Myrthe van de Meulenhof, Irene Wouters, Gert J. Olthuis (IQ Health department) and Sanne van Oosterhout: Tissue donation interviews: lots of variation, room for improvement. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde 2024;168:D8001.

In the April 4 NTvG podcast, #34 The wage gap in health care | NTVG, Gert Olthuis is interviewed about doctors' experiences with donation interviews since the new donor law: (Podcast is behind a paywall, interview starts from 22.15 min).