First-year medical students hold a ceremony and release balloons to honor the memory of body donors with families and friends at Hope Plaza on May 10, 2018. Photo by Matt Miller.

Our department coordinates the university’s Body Donor Program, which allows individuals to provide an important and very personal gift to the School of Medicine.

Body donation serves a vital role and allows medical students, allied health professionals and physicians in training to gain the detailed knowledge of human anatomy that is essential in order to deliver the best quality care to their patients. All donor tissue is used to teach anatomy in the classroom and surgical settings. Gifts made to the program also allow clinician-scientists, whose ultimate goal is to assist in understanding mechanisms affecting human health and disease, to conduct vital research.

Medical students also organize a yearly Donor Remembrance to show appreciation to the body donors and their loved ones, who have helped advance medical education and biomedical research with their generous donations.