The King County Medical Examiner's Office and Public Health - Seattle & King County are extremely concerned about the misrepresentation of a research grant that was part of a study to better understand the cause and needed treatment of mental illness.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office had a grant from the Stanley Medical Research Institute, a non-profit foundation, to send specimens to the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences, for 10 years. The grant paid for salaries of a pathologist and technical support from 1995 to 2004.

As part of the grant, the Medical Examiner’s Office sent brain tissue for research purposes to the University after having received consent from the next of kin. We took great effort and care to ensure that families understood the nature of the research and that their participation in this activity was completely voluntary.

We have complete documentation in 185 out of 186 cases. In one case we have incomplete records but the file indicates consent was given. Consent included the initial conversation with the next of kin plus a written description of the research mailed to the next of kin and a follow up phone call.

There was no financial incentive to acquire tissue samples, in other words there was no quota and no profit. All funds paid for the salary of a full-time pathologist and other costs to provide the capacity within the medical examiner’s office to take the samples when needed.

We would never have entered into an agreement that provided an incentive tied to the number of brain tissue provided.

As Chief Medical Examiner I am very upset that this erroneous media report would cause additional pain to the families of the deceased who contributed to the understanding and treatment of serious mental illness.