RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The availability of donated eye tissue saves and enhances vision in transplant recipients; however, the current demand for tissue surpasses the available supply. Corneal donor shortages lead to increased wait times, delayed surgeries, prolonged visual impairment, and increased inconvenience to patients requiring eye tissue transplantation. A web-based application was previously developed to facilitate easy and intuitive submission of potential donor information. OBJECTIVE: The primary objectives of this study were to assess health care professionals' attitudes toward the potential application and evaluate its effectiveness based on user feedback and donor registrations through the application. METHODS: Researchers used a mixed methods approach, commencing with a literature review to identify challenges associated with donor procurement. Stakeholder interviews were conducted to gauge health care professionals' perspectives regarding the application. User feedback was collected through questionnaires, surveys, and interviews to assess the application's usability and impact. An assessment of the reported potential donors and questionnaire responses were analyzed. RESULTS: The final version of the application successfully reported 24 real cornea donors. Among 64 health care providers who used the application to communicate about potential donors, 32 of them submitted trial entries exclusively for testing purposes. The remaining 8 health care professionals reported potential donors; however, these individuals did not meet the donor qualification criteria. The majority of participants found the application user-friendly and expressed their readiness to use it in the future. Positive ratings were assigned to the layout, appearance, purpose, and specific features of the application. Respondents highlighted the automatic sending of notifications via SMS text messages and the integration of all necessary documents for donor qualification and tissue collection as the most valuable functions of the application. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that donor reporting applications offer promising solutions to enhance tissue donor procurement. This application streamlined the reporting process, reduced paperwork, facilitated communication, and collected valuable data for analysis.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Obtaining corneas in a country of 38 million, Poland, is extremely inefficient. In Poland, about 1000 corneas are transplanted annually, of which over 500 come from multi-organ donations. To our knowledge, such a low percentage of donations is in the absence of reporting of potential corneal donors. There is no computer system in our country for tissue donor reporting. The aim of the work is to present an innovative application developed for this purpose. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional, observational study. The questionnaires were collected from doctors who had access to the app. RESULTS: Almost all participants (47/52) answered that they would use this app if it was available in the hospital, 46 acknowledged that the application could encourage doctors to report tissue donors, and 48 confirmed it should be integrated with the IT system of hospitals and should be available in all of them. CONCLUSION: Despite advances in medicine and technology and increased awareness of organ donation and transplantation, the gap between supply and demand is constantly growing. Due to the large number of patients awaiting corneal transplants in Poland, it is necessary to introduce changes aimed at improving this situation. The newly developed app may contribute to increasing donor reporting.