Fact not fiction, unifying Australian wide tissue and eye donation data is possible.

Lauren Bell¹, Kylie Hurst¹

¹ANZDATA and ANZOD Registry, Adelaide, Australia

Objectives: To consolidate Australian tissue and eye data to produce concise aggregate reporting on unique donors, donations, recipients and grafts transplanted.

Methods: In 2012, the Australian and New Zealand Organ Donor Registry (ANZOD) in collaboration with the Australian Organ and Tissue Authority (AOTA) and Australian tissue banks, initiated a pilot project for retrospective reporting of 2012 tissue donations. All parties agreed upon collection of a minimum dataset and prospective data collection with the creation of a web-based application and database to enable concise aggregate reporting.

Results: All Australian tissue donation agencies contributed 2012 data. Upon review, duplicate counts in donor and donation numbers raised concern. ANZOD identified common data entry errors and formulated data cleansing mechanisms to strengthen data integrity and include in a web-based unique identification application. The 2012 pilot enumerated 3,843 individual tissue donors and 3,978 donations (95.0% musculoskeletal; 2.3% cardiovascular; 2.7% skin). Data discrepancies indicated further action was required to guarantee data quality from initial tissue collection to utilisation.

Conclusion: Australian wide tissue donor and donation data was successfully consolidated for 2012, although areas of erroneous data were identified. Cleansing mechanisms were introduced to address errors and strengthen data integrity. Consolidation continues for 2013 data, modified data collection is now capturing total of notified grafts implanted and notified graft recipients for the Australian tissue sector. Continued collaboration with the Eye Bank Association of Australia and New Zealand (EBAANZ) will allow eye donor and recipient data to undergo similar cleansing mechanisms currently performed on tissue data. Ultimately continued refinement of data collection will accurately identify the supply and demand of the Australian eye and tissue sector.