A Demographic Exploration of Whole Body Donors at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

OBJECTIVE To examine and characterize the occupational histories of individuals who donated their whole bodies to the Anatomical Gift Program at Warren Alpert Medical School (AMS) from the academic years 2003-2004 to 2013-2014. DESIGN AND METHODS A retrospective chart review of 491 individuals who donated their whole bodies to Alpert Medical School was conducted upon IRB approval from Brown University. Demographic, social, and occupational histories were abstracted for analysis and review. There were no interventions. Descriptive statistics, Student T-test and Difference in Proportions Test were used to characterize information abstracted from donor applications to the Anatomical Gift Program. PRIMARY RESULTS From academic years 2003-2004 to 2013-2014, 491 individuals donated their bodies to the Anatomical Gift Program. Donors were split equally by gender (female = 52%; male = 48%). The median age of donors was 82 years; the vast majority self-identified as white (98%). The majority of donors came from occupations involved with industry (23%) or office work, hospitality and retail (24%). Of the 491 body donors, 2 were physicians (0.4%). PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrate that in the past decade, physicians have made few contributions to AMS. This remains in concert with current literature showing a lack of physician whole body donors. Future research must explore physician attitudes towards whole body donation.