Digiform Customer Success: Accelerated Bone Marrow Donations at DKMS

DKMS was one of Digiform Solutions’ first clients. Founded in 1991, DKMS is the second largest bone marrow donor registry and advocacy organization in the world. Globally, DKMS has registered over 11 million potential donors and helped save thousands of lives. The US office is based in New York City, with a second opening in Charlotte, NC later this year. Read on to discover how Digiform partnered with DKMS, and how we might help your organization, too.

Reducing regulatory risk with DocuSign 21 CFR Part 11

As a life sciences organization, DKMS is bound by rigorous compliance standards. These include 21 CFR part 11, the FDA's regulations for electronic documentation and signatures, and GxP standards. Digiform helped close the gap between stem cell donors and life-saving transplants by introducing DocuSign’s Part 11 module into the donation Workup process.

Using previous computer systems validation and project management experience, Digiform put our own validation protocol and forms into play—and within two months the transition to DocuSign had been made for Workup. Since the initial go-live, all Donor Management departments have been onboarded into the product. Now, prospective donors can sign all of their consents in DocuSign while physicians can review their health records and quickly give the green light to move forward. When donors and physicians receive an envelope, they must verify their identity with DocuSign as well as a unique security code provided by DKMS. This has dramatically reduced regulatory risk, as consent forms are no longer communicated from non-encrypted donor devices and paper suitability forms are no longer mailed via FedEx to off-site medical directors.

Digiform Leveraged DocuSign to boost Gen Z commitment

DKMS overwhelmingly receives requests for donors in the 18-24 age bracket—a demographic that’s notoriously difficult to reach since they’re often in college, working one or more jobs, or entirely mobile. Getting these digital natives to fill out and sign packets of paper documents was a major hurdle. It was starting to affect conversion rate from when a donor was requested to whether or not they actually donated.

With DocuSign and Digiform, DKMS can reach Gen Z-ers right where they are—which is frequently on their phones. Digiform designed a new process where DKMS packages all required forms into a single DocuSign envelope that’s electronically sent to the prospective donor, then returns to the coordinator for review and comment. Working within the DocuSign site, which Digiform branded for DKMS, recipients can sign and confidently submit documents in minutes—instead of weeks. Certain lead coordinators and managers can access others’ envelopes, making document access a breeze in the event of an emergency.

Saving staff time

Digiform turned critical donor forms into DocuSign templates, using conditional fields so donors complete all required information regardless of their answers. Digiform also maintains these templates actively as the forms become updated over time.

DocuSign 21 CFR Part 11 has also greatly reduced the time it takes DKMS to receive final clearance from physicians to move forward with the donation process—since the organization no longer has to express mail patient documents and wait for physician signatures. Before DocuSign, there was an average of 34 days between the time that a donor was declared suitable for donation and DKMS had a wet signature in hand. Now, it’s less than 24 hours.

By digitizing donor forms, DKMS has also been able to eliminate paper storage—and keep operations running smoothly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Does this success profile have you feeling inspired? Contact us today for a free consultation to see how Digiform Solutions can help you help the world.