Glossary
Select a letter below to find the word you are looking for. The glossary terms are for use in context with the work of the HTA, and are taken from our codes of practice.
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Paired donation
Where a relative, friend or partner is fit and able to donate an organ but is incompatible with the potential recipient, and they are matched with another donor and recipient in a similar situation, so that both people in need of a transplant receive a compatible organ.
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Parental responsibility
A person who has parental responsibility will usually, but not always, be the child’s parent. The category of persons with parental responsibility is as set out in the Children Act 1989.
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Part organ
For the purposes of the HT Act and the HT Act (Persons who Lack Capacity to Consent and Transplants) Regulations 2006, material is part of an organ if it is to be used for the same purpose as the entire organ in the human body.
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Performance assessment
This term is intended to encompass use of material in the evaluation and assessment of in vitro diagnostic kits. This is to make it quite clear, for example, that surplus diagnostic tissue can continue to be used to calibrate and assess the comparative performance of medical devices without specific consent.
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Perfusion
A method of treating organs to preserve them before transplantation. In the deceased donor this will take place after death, and in the living donor after the organ has been removed.
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Pooled donation
A form of paired donation whereby the donor and recipient cannot be matched and are matched with other donors and recipients from a pool of pairs in similar situations. More than two donors and two recipients are involved in the exchange, so that more than two people in need of a transplant receive a compatible organ.
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Post-mortem examination
Dissection and examination of a body after death, principally in order to determine the cause of death or the presence of disease processes. A hospital post-mortem examination is carried out with appropriate consent to gain a fuller understanding of the deceased person’s illness or the cause of death, and to enhance future medical care. Coroners’ post-mortem examinations are carried out under the authority of the coroner and without consent to assist coroners in carrying out their functions. See also minimally invasive autopsies and non invasive autopsies.
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Processing
All operations involved in the preparation, manipulation, preservation and packaging of tissues or cells intended for human applications.
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Procurement
The processes by which tissues and cells are made available, including the physical act of removing tissue and the donor selection and evaluation.
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Properly interested person
A person specifically described in rule 20 of the Coroners Rules 1984, including relatives in whose favour the coroner exercises discretion. A properly interested person may or may not be someone in a qualifying relationship to the deceased.
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Public health monitoring
Using population-based or epidemiological techniques to ascertain the prevalence, spread and pattern of an established disease or condition in the community, and relating its occurrence to public health programmes and activities.