UBC’s body donation program provides an average of about 80-110 donations per year, but that number has shrunk to 45-50 per year recently.
UBC Medical School is short of corpses for medical students, researchers say as they call for donations.
UBC’s body donation program has been in place since 1950, with an average of about 80 to 110 donations per year.
However, this number has shrunk to 45-50.
And while some medical schools may withdraw from studying corpses in dissection and anatomy classes, for UBC medical student Armagan Alam, the experience is critical.
“The human body is valuable in its own way,” he said. “It’s important to learn from him.”
Studying medicine with the help of a donated body is something that textbooks, virtual learning or models cannot come close to, Alam told Glacier Media.
“You don’t really get the detailed layers of fabric that interact with each other. You lose that definite knowledge. ”
Dr. Ed Moore, a professor and head of the Department of Cell and Physiological Sciences at UBC, oversees the body donation program.
He said all students are told that corpses are their first patients and should be treated with dignity and respect.
“There is no joke in the laboratory. No bullshit. No phones, laptops, cameras. ”
Every body gift is used to the maximum for education or research, he added. Surgeons will come to study new techniques, others to try such a technique before using it in the operating room.
Moore said any donation could improve the lives of many for years to come.
“It’s a remarkable gift for the offspring,” he said.
Consent is key
The program deals with obtaining corpses used in training and research. Medicine, biomedical engineering, dentistry and other students use corpses and tissues to learn basic anatomy, practice surgical techniques, test innovative new devices, among other applications.
Moore said donations were likely reduced due to the pandemic, in which the program was suspended for some time to ensure the safety of staff and students.
But now there is a need for corpses.
Donor consent is a key part of the program, Moore said, noting that consent can be revoked at any time by either the donor or his family.
“It’s completely voluntary.”
And while the current practice may have been to use unidentified bodies, that practice ceased decades ago, he said.
“A special experience for everyone”
The program emphasizes that students pursuing careers in medicine, dentistry and related professions respect donated bodies.
This respect is something that Alam has returned to many times.
He said that when students first enter the dissection lab, it is a clinical, sterile environment.
“There is a special kind of life that comes into the room,” Alam said. “It’s a very special way to celebrate a person’s life. I think it’s a special experience for everyone. “
Alam said that each body is unique and as such, each offers unique teaching experiences for students.
He said his body had a significant hernia, while another had cancer. Students will learn about these conditions by examining other corpses in the dissection room, he explained.
Such learning situations may be about to be abandoned in some schools replaced by virtual teaching.
Alam does not believe that the practical experience of young doctors from the dissection laboratory can be reproduced virtually.
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“The donation of someone’s body is a very special gift for future health professionals in our community,” the program’s website said.
“Students … are fully aware of the special privilege granted to them and the obligation they must behave professionally during their studies.
“People who donate their bodies to medical school can be sure that all human remains are given the dignity and respect that our society usually gives to the dead,” the website said.
UBC officials said the shortage situation is not unique to UBC; other universities in North America are experiencing the same trend.
Each year, students organize a memorial service for donors – usually in September – who were cremated the previous year.
Alam suggested that one of the reasons for the drop in donations may be the lack of a physical ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drop in recommendations could be another factor, he said.
“Oral transmission may be lost.”
Moore said anyone interested in becoming a donor could visit the program’s website.
jhainsworth@glaciermedia.ca
twitter.com/jhainswo
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