The Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR) is the national register for people to record their decision about becoming an organ and tissue donor.
The AODR is the only national register for people to record their decision about becoming an organ and tissue donor for transplantation after death. Registering is voluntary and people have complete choice over which organs and tissues they wish to donate. If a person does not want to become an organ and tissue donor they can register their decision not to donate.
People aged less than 18 years can become organ and tissue donors, although consent will need to be obtained from a family member at the time of death.
Context in digital health
When an individual registers for access to their Medicare information through their digital health record, the Department of Human Services can register the individual’s Medicare CDA documents in their digital health record, including their Australian Organ Donor Register entries. The data items in the Medicare documents will be loaded into the My Health Record system to be used as a source of data for the individual’s Medicare overview.
The Medicare CDA documents will be created by the Department of Human Services as the sole supplier of Medicare information within My Health Record.
The individual, and healthcare providers with access to the individual’s Medicare information, will be able to retrieve the Australian Organ Donor Register CDA document through the individual’s My Health Record.
There are a number of key business flows that occur within this process as outlined in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Australian Organ Donor Register high-level overview
These flows are described below:
- Consumer records their decision to donate their organs and tissues in the event of their death in the Department of Human Services (DHS) System.
- The DHS System uploads the consumer preference (as part of the AODR document) to the consumer’s My Health Record.
- AODR records can be retrieved by the consumer or clinicians using appropriate mechanisms via the My Health Record system.
