Science Care’s willed body donation program contributes to a wide-range of essential and innovative aspects of medical research.

The use of human tissues for medical research and educational purposes is varied, but generally falls into one of four major categories. The four are:
1) Advanced Surgical Education
2) Surgical Device Development
3) Biomechanical Testing
4) Cellular and Neurological Research

1) Advanced Surgical Education

Tissue donations help improve the quality of our medical professionals by ensuring the availability of suitable materials for learning purposes. The experience and education gained through the use of human tissues for education is far superior and very different than the learning provided by artificial substitutes and textbooks. When physicians and surgeons have the opportunity to undergo advanced training with human tissue, the result can be a dramatic reduction in the risk to living patients.

2) Surgical Device Development

Some of the world’s leading universities and medical instrument manufacturers have turned to Science Care to help in the development of state-of-the-art surgical devices. One current focus of the new instrumentation is the development of minimally invasive surgery. With the use of these new instruments and procedures patients can expect reduced surgical recovery time, less pain and shorter hospital stays.

3) Biomechanical Testing

The goal of this work is to discover improved treatments for patients who suffer from conditions such as spinal injury. By working with donated tissue, medical researcher continue to develop a database of accumulated knowledge that will advance the understanding of the anatomical structure and biomechanical properties of the spine to aid in the development of new treatments.

4) Cellular and Neurological Research

This type of research plays a key role in the development of drugs and therapies to treat many diseases and illnesses including: arthritis, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, Parkinson’s, osteoporosis, leukemia, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and liver disease. The general goal of this research is to gather information at the cellular level to better understand the cause and effect of disease and illness in a search to ultimately find cures and improved treatments.