What is the Registry?

The NIDCD National Temporal Bone, Hearing and Balance Pathology Resource Registry (The Registry) is a nonprofit organization.  The Registry was established in 1992 by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health.  The Registry continues and expands on the activities of the former National Temporal Bone Banks Program, which was created in 1960 to encourage temporal bone donation.  The Registry continues and expands on the activities of the former National Temporal Bone Banks Program, which was created in 1960 by the Deafness Research Foundation and the American Academy of Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology to encourage temporal bone donation.

The Registry serves the public and the scientific community by providing the following resources and services: 

• Dissemination of public information on temporal bone donation and research
• Enrollment of temporal bone donors
• Publication of "The Registry", a newsletter for researchers
• Conservation of existing human temporal bone collections
• Professional educational activities for physicians and scientists
• 24-hour nationwide network to collect temporal bones after a donor's death