#73 : Common Problems Faced by Indian Assisted Reproductive Technologies Laboratory Professionals

Background and Aims: There has been tremendous growth in the offering of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) in India creating a critical shortage of experienced clinical embryologists thus inevitably leading reduced training opportunities. The aim of this study was to investigate problems faced by laboratory professionals in the ART industry in India.

Method: An online questionnaire survey was distributed to ART laboratory professionals globally through professional societies, social media, and email databases. The questionnaire included demographic questions and open-ended questions on problems faced by ART laboratory professionals at the clinic level, professional level, and personal level. The survey was active from May 2016 until February 2017. The Indian data was collected and analysed as a global sub-population. The identified common problems were used to categorise the responses and the percentage distribution was calculated.

Results: Among 136 survey responders, 79 provided responses on problems faced by ART laboratory professionals, including 11 junior embryologists, 19 embryologists, 31 senior embryologists, 18 managers and directors. The problems identified from the responses were ‘overworking’ (18%), ‘respect / recognition’ (16%), ‘clinician and embryologist relationship’ (14%), ‘management’ (12%), ‘lack of training’ (11%), ‘regulation / certification’ (7%), ‘blamed for clinical outcomes’ (7%), ‘decision making’ (6%), ‘salary’ (5%), ‘staffing’ (3%).

When stratified into roles, the top problems for junior embryologists were ‘overworking’ (21%), ‘respect / recognition’ (21%), and ‘lack of training’ (21%), for embryologists was ‘overworking’ (21%), for senior embryologists was ‘respect / recognition’ (18%) and ‘management’ (18%), for managers and directors was ‘respect / recognition’ (21%).

Conclusion: The problems faced in the Indian ART industry are broad but are prioritised differently by staff members depending on their roles. Future research should investigate reasons underlining these problems and strategies to improve staff wellbeing particularly considering the recently introduced government regulations on ART in India.