Tissue donation context in Portugal: defining a strategy for improvement

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Ricardo Miguel Barros de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/17462
• topic: Donation; Transplantation; Tissue; Shortage; Transplante; Doação; Estratégias

The scarcity of tissue available for transplantation is a problem all over the world, especially in Portugal, as demand exceeds the available supply. In this context the central problem of this work is to know how the current context of chronic shortage of tissues available for transplantation can be improved. Therefore, the objective of this work is to contribute to the understanding of the problem of tissue donation and to define strategies to improve the context of shortage of tissues available for transplantation in Portugal. Methodology: On this research, a qualitative methodology was used with a systematic and consistent literature review, interviews with experts, informal meetings, nonparticipative observations, applications for official data and search in institutional websites, bibliographic databases and governmental websites. For a more objective analysis of the donation processes in Portugal, its gaps and problems, the content analysis method was used to analyze 6 semi-formal interviews. This analysis had the support of TROPES® software, versions 8.4 and 7.2. The SWOT analysis summarized all the information in order to facilitate the understanding of the context and establish possible strategies for improvement. Results: The content analysis results showed that economic restrains are leading to a policy of cost control and an institutional-based policy limiting the development of new and more efficient procedures. Results highlight the importance of a centralized system to fight the clear lack of resources in Portugal. The Spanish paradigm may be used to improve the current Portuguese model in order to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. Conclusions: It’s very important to optimize the few resources allocated to the activity and perform regulation updates to provide the foundation necessary on which to build a centralized and more efficient system.