Medicine: Information Bank

An organ bank from which surgeons could draw a kidney, a liver or a heart for transplantation when needed is still far off in the future, but an information bank from which surgeons may find out about organs as they become available is in the process of being established. Sponsor of the bank—or, more precisely, clearinghouse—is the Medic Alert Foundation. Started on a shoestring twelve years ago in Turlock, Calif., by Dr. Marion Collins, the organization has by now issued something like 200,000 identification bracelets and necklace tags to victims of diabetes, hemophilia, penicillin allergy and other conditions, to alert medical...

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