The Global Alliance of Eye Bank Associations (GAEBA) unveiled plans for a long-term project to capture annual data on corneal transplants, donations and tissue movement across countries.
“Right now, we do not have access to global rates,” said GAEBA’s Dr Graeme Pollock. “This means the sector, its members, end-users (surgeons and researchers) and the wider eye care community is unable to develop effective strategies to plan for the long-term need of human tissues for transplant, training and research, nor do they have adequate data to commence conversations with legislative and governing bodies or build new partnerships with those outside of the sector.”
The new project is designed to provide annual de-identified data at a national level, which will be made available in its anonymous raw form to those who need it, he said.
Surgeons and hospital-transplant facilities that import tissue because they do not have an eye bank serving them, will be connected individually and encouraged to develop a national tally system for submission assisted by GAEBA. The project will commence with capturing 2019 data.
