Who is MTF?

Dr. William Tomford

The Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation is a non-profit service organization dedicated to providing quality allograft tissue through a commitment to excellence in education, research, recovery and care for recipients, donors and their families. We are a national consortium comprised of academic medical institutions, organ procurement organizations and tissue recovery organizations. From our inception, we have been both donor-focused and surgeon-driven—which means that we're committed to delivering the highest level of service to donors and their families, as well as recipients and surgeons.

Since our inception in 1987, MTF has recovered more than 60,000 donors and distributed more than 3 million grafts for transplantation.

Bruce W. Stroever

The Foundation was established by surgeons and teaching institutions to meet the need for a high quality and consistent allograft supply. From the beginning, we determined that quality must be our first priority. So while we maintain the largest and most complete inventory of musculoskeletal allografts available, we insist on the highest standards achievable in technology, in our policies and procedures, and in our management.

Many of our tissue forms are now available through our recently formed Sports Medicine division. MTF sports medicine tissues are available for ligament reconstruction, cartilage repair, and meniscal transplantation. In addition to allograft, MTF Sports Medicine also provides biologic solutions for a variety of sports related injuries including Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, scaffolds and fixation devices.

We also support research to expand the science of transplantation, and we encourage the efforts of our members and non-member clients to improve the understanding of donation and transplantation among the medical community and the public at large. Our policies are developed and implemented by MTF’s Medical Board of Trustees, Donation Board of Trustees and Board of Directors, composed of physicians and recovery agency representatives who are dedicated to the mission of the Foundation. This fundamental commitment enables us to set and maintain the highest levels of safety assurance and quality control in all phases of our operations.

MTF was created as a charitable organization with a mission that is dedicated to the needs of donors, donor families, patients and surgeons. We focus on respectful stewardship of the donated gift while advancing the science and practice of bone, ligament, cartilage and skin transplantation.

We are unconditionally committed to providing tissues that have met the most stringent safety protocols. At the same time, we are not constrained by profit motives. This freedom allows MTF to support the need for advanced tissue forms, maintain the most comprehensive selection of large grafts and rapidly respond to special tissue requests. Our non-profit structure has also fostered an atmosphere that values research, and our support for grants, fellowships and educational efforts is consistent and generous.

Advances in orthopaedic and transplantation surgery have been rapid and dramatic. The science of bone, ligament, cartilage and skin transplantation now affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals every year, and current research indicates that musculoskeletal transplantations will become even more sophisticated in the near future. The growth in the need for tissue transplants drives the Foundation's innovation to serve the following groups:

Donor Families - Our focus on the needs of donor families and the recovery agencies that serve them has allowed us to devote our resources to meeting the growing demand for bone and tissue allografts. We strongly believe that donors and their families are the most important aspect in our business. As our primary focus, they are entitled to respect, compassionate care, and our complete commitment that their gift is protected and optimized.

Tissue Transplant Recipients - In terms of our efforts to ensure safety and allograft integrity, recipients are our sole focus. From our strict donor criteria, testing and recovery standards, to our exhaustive quality assurance processes, to our state-of-the-art processing techniques, the ultimate well-being of the recipient is our goal. MTF maintains an unrivaled safety record.

Donor Recovery Organizations - The U.S. has a well-organized system of recovery organizations to meet the needs of potential donor families in every hospital in the nation. The Federal Government requires every hospital to participate in the tissue donation process through the Medicare Hospitals Conditions of Participation. The Foundation provides fully integrated and customized tissue recovery services to its 36 recovery partners which allow them to better serve the needs of hospitals in their service areas.

Surgeons - The implantation of allografts is performed by some of the most highly-skilled surgeons in the medical field. The direction of the Foundation is guided by leading orthopaedic transplant surgeons and their commitment to enhance their patients' health, mobility and quality of life.

Employees - Our employees are the key to closing the gap between the need for tissue transplants and the availability of safe, high quality allograft tissues. MTF values employees as individuals, furthers their knowledge, expanding their opportunities. Every MTF employee is dedicated to sharing the Foundation’s mission of changing lives through tissue donation, and is committed to the official MTF Values. These values are:

MTF is the connection between the gift of a donor family and improvement in the lives of thousands of tissue recipients. We are guided and grounded by our responsibility to safety for every recipient of our allograft tissue and the responsibility to use every donor’s gift in the best possible way.

Thank you for visiting our website, and we welcome this opportunity to tell you more about the Foundation and our work.

Dr. William Tomford, Chairman of the Board of Directors

Bruce W. Stroever President & Chief Executive Officer