This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2002;287:1930.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Some 44% of the United States population can now sign up as organ donors when renewing driver's licenses, but "caution should be exercised" about the impact of these registries, concludes Organ Donor Registries: A Useful, but Limited Tool, a DHHS report. The number of registries has grown recently; 16 states maintain the databases and six others are contemplating them.

On the plus side, registries can help organizations that procure organs by speeding identification of possible donors and helping to convince hospital staff and next of kin of a donor's wishes, notes the report. Families of registry enrollees consent to donation at a higher rate than families of nonenrollees.

On the minus side, technological problems often hamper efficient transfer of data from state motor vehicle departments, and overall use of the registries is limited. Together, such factors mean that the total impact on the number of available organs is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?