To donate or not to donate? Future healthcare professionals’ opinions on biobanking of human biological material for research purposes

Abstract

Background Over the last few decades biobanks have been recognised as institutions that may revolutionise biomedical research and the development of personalised medicine. Poland, however, still lacks clear regulations regarding the running of biobanks and the conducting of biomedical research. While the awareness of the general public regarding biobanks is low, healthcare professions and medical students also lack basic knowledge regarding biobanks, and such ignorance may affect their support for biobanks. Methods This study is aimed at assessing the knowledge and attitudes of future healthcare professionals towards the donation of human biological material for research purposes and is based on a sample of 865 Polish medical students at Poznań University of Medical Sciences. Results This research has shown that the awareness of medical students’ regarding biobanks is low. It has also shown that while the majority of future healthcare professionals enrolled in this study supported the idea of biobank research and declared themselves willing to donate, still many students felt ambivalent about the biobanking of human biological material for research purposes and expressed concerns over biobanking research. While the primarily motivation to participate in biobank research was the desire to help advance science and to develop innovative therapies, the most common reason for a refusal was the fear that the government, insurance companies or employers, might have access to the samples. Concerns over unethical use of samples and data safety were also prevalent. More than half of students opted for a study-specific model of consent and only a few opted for broad consent. Conclusions This research suggests that a lack of knowledge about biobanks, their role and activities may affect medical students’ support for biobanks and their active participation in the collection and management of biospecimens for research purposes. Since in the future medical, nursing and pharmacy students will be involved in the collection, storage, testing and analysis of biospecimens from their patients, medical students in all professional fields should be trained regarding the concept, purposes and operational procedures of biobanks, as well as the ethical, legal and social implications of biobank research.

Do biobanks need pharmacists? Support of pharmacy students to biobanking of human biological material for pharmaceutical research and development

“…A high level of acceptance of participation in biobanking and donation of their own HBM do not correspond with an equally high level of knowledge on biobanking. Polish research performed among students of different medical studies revealed deficits of knowledge on biobanking (Krajewska-Kułak et al, 2011), its specificity and role in modern medicine along with relatively high eagerness of donation of their own tissue to biobanks (Domaradzki et al, 2023). Similar results were obtained in the research carried out among future health and care professionals (HCPs) in Saudi Arabia (Merdad et al, 2017) and Egypt (Ziady et al, 2017;Abdelhafiz et al, 2021).…”

“…Although there are several studies on the attitudes of Polish citizens towards biobanking of human biological material (HBM) for research purposes (Majchrowska et al, 2022;Pawlikowski et al, 2022;Domaradzki et al, 2023;Pronicki et al, 2023), there remains a shortage of studies on the attitudes of (future) pharmacists on research biobanks. Thus, this study was designed to assess knowledge and attitudes of Polish pharmacy students on research biobanks.…”

Awareness, Attitudes and Willingness to Donate Biological Samples to a Biobank: A Survey of a Representative Sample of Polish Citizens

“…In a 2019 survey in Latvia this percentage was 25.8% [6]. In Poland in 2023, around less than three quarters (71%) of medical students encountered the term biobank [37]. In 2013 in Poland, less than half (48%) of respondents associated a biobank with an institution related to medicine and 37% of respondents associated it with an institution related to scientific activities [38].…”

“…The most of them declared that consent should be acquired before every new research project. Less than one third of respondents stated that no additional consent should be required if the donor consents while donating [37]. In 2023 in Poland, it was shown that 58.8% of respondents believe that they must give their consent to biobank their samples, 34.2% have no opinion on this and 7.0% believe that they do not have to give their consent to biobanking.…”

Neuro-Urology and Biobanking: An Integrated Approach for Advancing Research and Improving Patient Care

“…This poses a problem as considerable effort and cost were invested in gathering and storing these samples. While broad consent permits secondary sample use in other contexts, participants typically favor specific consent over it [ 99 ]. Furthermore, participants usually interact solely with their study physician, remaining unaware of the biobank where their samples reside.…”