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International Researchers Draft Consensus Document That Establishes Framework for Microbiome Testing

Microbiologists and clinical laboratory professionals should play a key role in the ordering and use of microbiome testing

International experts in the field of microbiome testing recently published a consensus document that establishes guidelines for the use and distribution of microbiota diagnostics they claim are long overdue. Companies offering direct-to-consumer (DTC) microbiome test kits continue to increase in number and popularity. But some experts in the human microbiome field—including microbiologists and clinical laboratory professionals—remain apprehensive regarding the science behind this type of home testing.

In their paper, the team, led by microbiota researchers Antonio Gasbarrini, MD, Giovanni Cammarota, MD, and Gianluca Ianiro, MD, professors at the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic Foundation IRCCS and Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, wrote, “We aimed to establish a framework to regulate the provision of microbiome testing and minimize the use of inappropriate tests and pave the way for the evidence-based development and use of human microbiome diagnostics in clinical medicine.”

A Gemelli University news release states, “The intestinal microbiota could perhaps one day become a routine tool for the early diagnosis of many diseases and treatment guidance, but at the moment there is a lack of solid scientific evidence to support these indications. Yet, day by day, the offers of commercial kits are multiplying to carry out do-it-yourself tests, at the moment completely devoid of scientific significance and solidity.”

It continues, “To put a stop to this drift, a panel of international experts, coordinated by Dr. Gianluca Ianiro, has drafted the ‘instructions for use’ for best practices related to microbiota testing and recommendations for its indications, analysis methods, presentation of results and potential clinical applications.”

The experts published their paper, “International Consensus Statement on Microbiome Testing in Clinical Practice,” in the journal Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

“This document marks a decisive step towards a standardization that has become indispensable making the microbiota an increasingly integrated element in personalized medicine,” said gastroenterologist Antonio Gasbarrini, MD (above), dean of the faculty of medicine and surgery and full professor of internal medicine at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. “In the clinical context, these guidelines will be essential to translate research progress into concrete applications, improving the management of many gastroenterological and systemic diseases related to the microbiota,” he added. Microbiologists and clinical laboratory managers may want to follow efforts to promote these guidelines, both within healthcare and as they relate to consumers ordering their own microbiome tests. (Photo copyright: Agostino Gemelli University.)

Our Second Brain

The gut microbiome consists of the microorganisms that reside in the human gut and the small and large intestines. This ecosystem plays a major role in an individual’s health as it aids in digestion and metabolism. It also helps control inflammation and can strengthen the immune system.

“[The gut microbiome] contains all the microbes that reside within our intestinal tract. And those microbes are comprised of bacteria, fungi, yeast and viruses,” said Gail Cresci, PhD, RD, Director, Nutrition Research Center for Human Nutrition at the Cleveland Clinic in a Health Essentials article.

“What we’ve learned over the years is that there’s a lot of crosstalk between your gut microbiome and your body,” she added. 

A healthy gut microbiome is imperative for good human health. An unhealthy gut microbiome can lead to certain diseases and even have a negative effect on mental health and mood.

“Your gut health is so important because studies really do indicate that our gut health plays a huge role in our overall health,” stated Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RDN, a dietician at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Wellness and Preventative Medicine, in the article. “It impacts our risk of chronic conditions, our ability to manage our weight, even our immune system. … There is so much attention and research on the microbiome and gut health now that experts often refer to it as the ‘second brain.’”

Future of Microbiome Testing

In their consensus document, the scientists wrote, “We convened an international multidisciplinary expert panel to standardize best practices of microbiome testing for clinical implementation, including recommendations on general principles and minimum requirements for their provision, indications, pre-testing protocols, method of analyses, reporting of results, and potential clinical value. We also evaluated current knowledge gaps and future directions in this field.”

The team’s intent is to provide guidelines and define quality standards and accuracy for microbiome testing to ensure consumers are receiving factual information.

“In recent years, the intestinal microbiota has taken on a key role as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic tool,” said gastroenterology surgeon Serena Porcari, MD, of Gemelli University Hospital in Italy, in the Gemelli news release. “From this point of view, the first step, for a targeted modulation of the microbiota itself, is to obtain a standardization of its analysis, regulated according to the definition of minimum criteria for performing the test.”

The team also evaluated disparities between various tests and anticipated what lies ahead for the future of microbiome testing. In addition, they assessed ways to minimize inappropriate testing and established a framework for the development of evidence-based testing and the use of human microbiota diagnostics in clinical medicine.

“This consensus document represents a crucial step towards bringing order to the current panorama of diagnostic tests on the intestinal microbiota,” said Maurizio Sanguinetti, MD, director of the department of laboratory and hematological sciences at Gemelli Polyclinic Foundation, in the news release. “The diagnostic characterization of the intestinal microbiota must be based on rigorous standards, in order to guarantee reliable and clinically useful results. It is not a simple laboratory test, but a complex tool that requires a deep understanding of microbial dynamics and their impact on human health.

“This is why these analyses must be conducted by highly qualified personnel with specific expertise in clinical microbiology and bioinformatics,” he emphasized. “In our microbiology laboratory at the Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli, we already apply diagnostic tests on the intestinal microbiota following the principles and best practices outlined in the document.

“It is essential to invest in the training of future physicians and microbiologists so that they acquire the necessary skills to correctly interpret the results of these tests and apply them effectively in clinical practice. This document provides a valuable basis to guide not only the current use of the tests, but also their future development, always with a view to evidence-based and personalized medicine,” Sanguinetti concluded.

With popularity of microbiome testing on the rise, it’s important that microbiologists and clinical laboratory professionals stay informed on the latest developments in the field of microbiome diagnostics to protect healthcare consumers and their patients.

—JP Schlingman

Related Information:

International Experts Set Framework for Microbiota Diagnostics

Gut Microbiota: A Consensus Document Brings Order to Diagnostic Testing

International Consensus Statement on Microbiome Testing in Clinical Practice

How Your Gut Microbiome Impacts Your Health

Mayo Clinic Scientists Develop AI Tool That Can Determine If Gut Microbiome is Healthy

Cleveland Clinic Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence to Link Metabolites in Gut Bacteria with Alzheimer’s Disease

Findings could lead to new biomarkers for targeted therapies and clinical laboratory tests for multiple diseases

Once again, human gut microbiota are being linked to the progression of a chronic ailment. Using artificial intelligence (AI), researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute found that “metabolites produced by bacteria in the gut” may influence the course of a patient’s Alzheimer’s disease, according to a news release. Insights from the study could lead to useful biomarkers for clinical laboratory tests and as targets for prescription drugs.

Researchers have been exploring the role metabolites play in the development of disease for some time. Alzheimer’s is a progressive, degenerative brain disease typically linked to age, family history, and deposits of certain proteins in the brain that cause the brain to shrink and brain cells to eventually die. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60% to 80% of all dementia cases. It has no cure or proven method of prevention, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

There are nearly seven million people living with Alzheimer’s in the US and 55 million people worldwide live with it or other forms of dementia. Patients are usually over the age of 65, but it can present in younger patients as well.

The Cleveland Clinic scientists published their findings in the journal Cell Reports titled, “Systematic Characterization of Multi-omics Landscape between Gut Microbial Metabolites and GPCRome in Alzheimer’s Disease.”

“Gut metabolites are the key to many physiological processes in our bodies, and for every key there is a lock for human health and disease,” said Feixiong Cheng, PhD (above), founding director of the Cleveland Clinic Genome Center, in a news release. “The problem is that we have tens of thousands of receptors and thousands of metabolites in our system, so manually figuring out which key goes into which lock has been slow and costly. That’s why we decided to use AI.” Findings from the study could lead to new clinical laboratory biomarkers for dementia screening tests. (Photo copyright: Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute.)

Changes to Gut Bacteria

Metabolites are substances released by bacteria when the body breaks down food, drugs, chemicals, or its own tissue, such as fat or muscle. They fuel cellular processes within the body that may be either helpful or harmful to an individual’s health.

The Cleveland Clinic researchers believe that preventing detrimental interactions between metabolites and cells could aid in disease prevention. Previous studies have shown that Alzheimer’s patients do experience changes in their gut bacteria as the disease progresses.

To complete their study, the scientists used AI and machine learning (ML) to analyze more than 1.09 million potential metabolite-receptor pairs to determine the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s.

They then examined genetic and proteomic data from Alzheimer’s disease studies and looked at different receptor protein structures and metabolite shapes to determine how different metabolites can affect brain cells. The researchers identified significant interactions between the gut and the brain. 

They discovered that the metabolite agmatine was most likely to interact with a receptor known as CA3R in Alzheimer’s patients. Agmatine is believed to protect brain cells from inflammation and damage. They found that when Alzheimer’s-affected neurons are treated with agmatine, CA3R levels reduce. Levels of phosphorylated tau proteins, a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease, lowered as well.

The researchers also studied a metabolite called phenethylamine. They found that it too could significantly alter the levels of phosphorylated tau proteins, a result they believe could be beneficial to Alzheimer’s patients.

New Therapies for Alzheimer’s, Other Diseases

One of the most compelling results observed in the study was the identification of specific G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that interact with metabolites present in the gut microbiome. By focusing on orphan GPCRs, the researchers determined that certain metabolites could activate those receptors, which could help generate new therapies for Alzheimer’s.

“We specifically focused on Alzheimer’s disease, but metabolite-receptor interactions play a role in almost every disease that involves gut microbes,” said Feixiong Cheng, PhD, founding director of the Cleveland Clinic Genome Center in the news release. “We hope that our methods can provide a framework to progress the entire field of metabolite-associated diseases and human health.”

Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Genome Center, the Luo Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and the Center for Microbiome and Human Health (CMHH) collaborated on the study. All three are part of the Cleveland Clinic.

The team plans to use AI technology to further develop and study the interactions between genetic and environmental factors on human health and disease progression. More research and studies are needed, but results of the Cleveland Clinic study suggest new biomarkers for targeted therapies and clinical laboratory tests for dementia diseases may soon follow.

—JP Schlingman

Related Information:

AI Connects Gut Bacteria Metabolites to Alzheimer’s Disease Progression

Researchers Use AI to Improve Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment Through the ‘Gut-brain Axis’

Machine Learning Reveals Link Between Metabolites and Alzheimer’s

Systematic Characterization of Multi-omics Landscape between Gut Microbial Metabolites and GPCRome in Alzheimer’s Disease

Phosphorylated Tau in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Tauopathies

Orphan G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs): Biological Functions and Potential Drug Targets

Woman Performs Do-it-yourself Fecal Transplant to Relieve Symptoms of IBS, Gets Donor’s Acne

Clinical laboratory scientists and microbiologists could play a role in helping doctors explain to patients the potential dangers of do-it-yourself medical treatments

Be careful what you wish for when you perform do-it-yourself (DIY) medical treatments. That’s the lesson learned by a woman who was seeking relief for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). When college student Daniell Koepke did her own fecal transplant using poop from her brother and her boyfriend as donors her IBS symptoms improved, but she began to experience medical conditions that afflicted both fecal donors.

“It’s possible that the bacteria in the stool can influence inflammation in the recipient’s body, by affecting their metabolism and activating their immune response,” microbial ecologist Jack Gilbert, PhD, Professor and Associate Vice Chancellor at University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) told Business Insider. “This would cause shifts in their hormonal activity, which could promote the bacteria that can cause acne on the skin. We nearly all have this bacterium on skin, but it is often dormant,” he added.

A Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) is a procedure where stool from a healthy donor is transplanted into the microbiome of a patient plagued by a certain medical condition.

Our guts are home to trillions of microorganisms (aka, microbes), known as the gut microbiota, that serve many important functions in the body. The microbiome is a delicate ecosystem which can be pushed out of balance when advantageous microbes are outnumbered by unfavorable ones. An FMT is an uncomplicated and powerful method of repopulating the microbiome with beneficial microbes.   

“With fecal microbiome transplants there is really compelling evidence, but the science is still developing. We’re still working on if it actually has benefits for wider populations and if the benefit is long-lasting,” said Gilbert in a Netflix documentary titled, “Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut.”

“The microbial community inside our gut can have surprising influences on different parts of our body,” microbial ecologist Jack Gilbert, PhD (above), of the Gilbert Lab at University of California San Diego told Business Insider. “Stools are screened before clinical FMTs, and anything that could cause major problems, such as certain pathogens, would be detected. When you do this at home, you don’t get that kind of screening.” Doctors and clinical laboratories screening patients for IBS understand the dangers of DIY medical treatments. (Photo copyright: University of California San Diego.)

Changing Poop Donors

When Koepke began experiencing symptoms of IBS including indigestion, stabbing pains from trapped gas and severe constipation, she initially turned to physicians for help.

In the Netflix documentary, Koepke stated that she was being prescribed antibiotics “like candy.” Over the course of five years, she completed six rounds of antibiotics per year, but to no avail.

She also changed her diet, removing foods that were making her symptoms worse. This caused her to lose weight and she eventually reached a point where she could only eat 10 to 15 foods. 

“It’s really hard for me to remember what it was like to eat food before it became associated with anxiety and pain and discomfort,” she said.

In an attempt to relieve her IBS symptoms, Koepke made her own homemade fecal transplant pills using donated stool from her brother. After taking them her IBS symptoms subsided and she slowly gained weight. But she developed hormonal acne just like her brother. 

Koepke then changed donors, using her boyfriend’s poop to make new fecal transplant pills. After she took the new pills, her acne dissipated but she developed depression, just like her boyfriend. 

“Over time, I realized my depression was worse than it’s ever been in my life,” Koepke stated in the documentary.

She believes the microbes that were contributing to her boyfriend’s depression were also transplanted into her via the fecal transplant pills. When she reverted to using her brother’s poop, her depression abated within a week.

Gilbert told Business Insider his research illustrates that people who suffer from depression are lacking certain bacteria in their gut microbiome.

“She may have had the ‘anti-depressant’ bacteria in her gut, but when she swapped her microbiome with his, her anti-depressant bacteria got wiped out,” he said.

FDA Approves FMT Therapy for Certain Conditions

Typically, the fecal material for an FMT procedure performed by a doctor comes from fecal donors who have been rigorously screened for infections and diseases. The donations are mixed with a sterile saline solution and filtered which produces a liquid solution. That solution is then administered to a recipient or frozen for later use. 

Fecal transplant methods include:

On November 30, 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first FMT therapy, called Rebyota, for the prevention of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff.) in adults whose symptoms do not respond to antibiotic therapies. Rebyota is a single-dose treatment that is administered rectally into the gut microbiome at a doctor’s office. 

Then, in April of 2023, the FDA approved the use of a medicine called Vowst, which is the first oral FMT approved by the FDA.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, scientists are exploring the possibility that fecal transplants may be used as a possible treatment for many health conditions, including:

Doctors and clinical laboratories know that do-it-yourself medicine is typically not a good idea for obvious reasons. Patients seldom appreciate all the implications of the symptoms of an illness, nor do they fully understand the potentially dangerous consequences of self-treatment. Scientists are still researching the benefits of fecal microbiota transplants and hope to discover more uses for this treatment. 

—JP Schlingman

Related Information:

A Woman Gave Herself Poop Transplants Using Her Brother’s Feces to Treat Debilitating IBS. Then She Started Getting Acne Just Like Him.

FDA Approves First Orally Administered Fecal Microbiota Product for the Prevention of Recurrence of Clostridioides Difficile Infection

FDA Approves First FMT Therapy and Issues Guidance

Everything You Want to Know about Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Stanford University Scientists Discover New Lifeform Residing in Human Microbiome

Microbiome Firm Raises $86.5 Million and Inks Deal to Sell Consumer Test Kits in 200 CVS Pharmacies

Researchers Find Health of Human Microbiome Greatly Influenced by Foods We Eat

US Hospitals Continue to Be Squeezed by Shortage of Nurses, Rising Salaries

It is more than a shortage of nurses, as most clinical laboratories report the same shortages of medical technologists and increased labor costs

Just as hospital-based clinical laboratories are unable to hire and retain adequate numbers of medical technologists (MTs) and clinical laboratory scientists (CLSs), the nursing shortage is also acute. Compounding the challenge of staffing nurses is the rapid rise in the salaries of nurses because hospitals need nurses to keep their emergency departments, operating rooms, and other services open and treating patients while also generating revenue.

The nursing shortage has been blamed on burnout due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but nurses also report consistently deteriorating conditions and say they feel undervalued and under-appreciated, according to Michigan Advance, which recently covered an averted strike by nurses at 118-bed acute care McLaren Central Hospital in Mt. Pleasant and 97-bed teaching hospital MyMichigan Medical Center Alma, both in Central Michigan.

“Nurses are leaving the bedside because the conditions that hospital corporations are creating are unbearable. The more nurses leave, the worse it becomes. This was a problem before the pandemic, and the situation has only deteriorated over the last three years,” said Jamie Brown, RN, President of the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) and a critical care nurse at Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan Advance reported.

Jamie Brown, RN

“The staffing crisis will never be adequately addressed until working conditions at hospitals are improved,” said Jamie Brown, RN (above), President of the Michigan Nurses Association in a press release. Brown’s statement correlates with claims by laboratory technicians about working conditions in clinical laboratories all over the country that are experiencing similar shortages of critical staff. (Photo copyright: Michigan Nurses Association.)

Nurse Understaffing Dangerous to Patients

In the lead up to the Michigan nurses’ strike, NPR reported on a poll conducted by market research firm Emma White Research LLC on behalf of the MNA that found 42% of nurses surveyed claimed “they know of a patient death due to nurses being assigned too many patients.” The same poll in 2016 found only 22% of nurses making the same claim.

And yet, according to an MNA news release, “There is no law that sets safe RN-to-patient ratios in hospitals, leading to RNs having too many patients at one time too often. This puts patients in danger and drives nurses out of the profession.”

Other survey findings noted in the Emma White Research memo to NPR include:

  • Seven in 10 RNs working in direct care say they are assigned an unsafe patient load in half or more of their shifts.
  • Over nine in 10 RNs say requiring nurses to care for too many patients at once is affecting the quality of patient care.
  • Requiring set nurse-to-patient ratios could also make a difference in retention and in returning qualified nurses to the field.

According to NPR, “Nurses across the state say dangerous levels of understaffing are becoming the norm, even though hospitals are no longer overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.”

Thus, nursing organizations in Michigan, and the legislators who support change, have proposed the Safe Patient Care Act which sets out to “to increase patient safety in Michigan hospitals by establishing minimum nurse staffing levels, limiting mandatory overtime for RNs, and adding transparency,” according to an MNA news release.

Huge Increase in Nursing Costs

Another pressure on hospitals is the rise in the cost of replacing nurses with temporary or travel nurses to maintain adequate staffing levels.

In “Hospital Temporary Labor Costs: a Staggering $1.52 Billion in FY2022,” the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association noted that “To fill gaps in staffing, hospitals hire registered nurses and other staff through ‘traveler’ agencies. Traveler workers, especially RNs in high demand, command higher hourly wages—at least two or three times more than what an on-staff clinician would earn. Many often receive signing bonuses. In Fiscal Year 2019, [Massachusetts] hospitals spent $204 million on temporary staff. In FY2022, they spent $1.52 billion—a 610% increase. According to the MHA survey, approximately 77% of the $1.52 billion went to hiring temporary RNs.”

It’s likely this same scenario is playing out in hospitals all across America.

Are Nursing Strikes a Symptom of a Larger Healthcare Problem?

In “Nurses on Strike Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg. The Care Worker Shortage Is About to Touch Every Corner of the US Economy,” Fortune reported that nationally the US is facing a shortage of more than 200,000 nurses.

“But the problem is much bigger,” Fortune wrote. “Care workers—physicians, home health aides, early childhood care workers, physician assistants, and more—face critical challenges as a result of America’s immense care gap that may soon touch every corner of the American economy.”

Clinical laboratories are experiencing the same shortages of critical staff due in large part to the same workplace issues affecting nurses. Dark Daily covered this growing crisis in several ebriefings.

In “Forbes Senior Contributor Covers Reasons for Growing Staff Shortages at Medical Laboratories and Possible Solutions,” we covered an article written by infectious disease expert Judy Stone, MD, in which she noted that factors contributing to the shortage of medical technologists and other clinical laboratory scientists include limited training programs in clinical laboratory science, pay disparity, and staff retention.

We also covered in that ebrief how the so-called “Great Resignation” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on clinical laboratory staffs, creating shortages of pathologists as well as of medical technologists, medical laboratory technicians, and other lab scientists who are vital to the nation’s network of clinical laboratories.

And in “Clinical Laboratory Technician Shares Personal Journey and Experience with Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” we reported on the personal story of Suzanna Bator, a former laboratory technician with the Cleveland Clinic and with MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio. Bator shared her experiences in an essay for Daily Nurse that took a personalized, human look at the strain clinical laboratory technicians were put under during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Her story presents the quandary of how to keep these critical frontline healthcare workers from experiencing burnout and leaving the field.

Did Experts See the Shortages Coming?

Hospitals across the United States—and in the UK, according to Reuters—are facing worker strikes, staff shortages, rising costs, and uncertainty about the future. Just like clinical laboratories and other segments of the healthcare industry, worker burnout and exhaustion in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic are being cited as culprits for these woes.

But was it predictable and could it have been avoided?

“One of the big things to clear up for the public is that … we saw the writing on the wall that vacancies were going to be a problem for us, before the pandemic hit our shores,” Christopher Friese, PhD, professor of Nursing and Health Management Policy at the University of Michigan (UM), told NPR. Friese is also Director of the Center for Improving Patient and Population Health at UM.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and staffing shortages exasperated by it, will be felt by clinical laboratories, pathology groups, and the healthcare industry in general for years to come. Creative solutions must be employed to avoid more staff shortages and increase employee retention and recruitment.

Ashley Croce

Related Information:

Amid Burnout and Exhaustion, Nurses at Two Mid-Michigan Hospitals OK New Contracts

‘Everyone Is Exhausted and Burned Out’: McLaren Central Nurses Authorize Potential Strike

New Poll Shows a Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Law Could Be Key to Addressing Staffing Crisis

42% of Michigan Nurses Say High Patient Load Led to Deaths

Michigan Nurses Report More Patients Dying Due to Understaffing, Poll Finds

COVID-19’s Impact on Nursing Shortages, the Rise of Travel Nurses, and Price Gouging

Survey of Registered Nurses Living or Working in Michigan

This Nursing Shortage Requires Innovative Solutions

Nurses on Strike Are Just the Tip of the iceberg. The Care Worker Shortage Is About to Touch Every Corner of the US Economy

Workers Stage Largest Strike in History of Britain’s Health Service

Nursing Shortage by State: Which US States Need Nurses the Most and Which Ones Will Have Too Many?

Clinical Laboratory Technician Shares Personal Journey and Experience with Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic

It’s not only medical laboratory technicians, healthcare workers across the board continue to deal with extreme pressures that preceded the pandemic

Burnout in healthcare is a constant problem, especially in overstressed clinical laboratories and anatomic pathology groups. To raise awareness about the plight of medical laboratory technicians (MLTs) and other frontline workers in the healthcare industry, a former lab tech recounted her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to burnout and her departure from the lab profession during 2020-2021.

Suzanna Bator was formerly a laboratory technician with the Cleveland Clinic and with MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio. Her essay in Daily Nurse, titled, “The Hidden Healthcare Heroes: A Lab Techs Journey Through the Pandemic,” is a personalized, human look at the strain clinical laboratory technicians were put under during the pandemic. Her story presents the quandary of how to keep these critical frontline healthcare workers from experiencing burnout and leaving the field.

“We techs were left unsupported and unmentored throughout the pandemic. No one cared if we were learning or growing in our job, and there was little encouragement for us to enter training or residency programs. We were just expendable foot soldiers: this is not a policy that leads to long-term job retention,” she wrote.

Clinical laboratory leaders and pathology group managers may find valuable insights in Bator’s essay that they can use when developing worker support programs for their own clinical laboratories and practices.

Suzanna Bator

“The pressure never let up. No matter how mind-numbing and repetitive the work could get, we had to work with constant vigilance, as there was absolutely no room for error,” Suzanna Bator wrote in Daily Nurse. Burnout in clinical laboratories is an ongoing problem that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo copyright: Daily Nurse.)

Hopeful Beginnings and Eager to Help

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, folks in every industry stepped up. Fashion designers tasked their haute couture seamstresses with making personal protective equipment (PPE), neighbors brought food and supplies to their immunosuppressed or elderly neighbors, and healthcare workers took on enormous workloads outside of their own departments and traditional responsibilities, The New York Times reported.

When Bator joined the Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 team she had no clinical lab tech accreditations. Nevertheless, she and 12 other non-accredited hires were quickly put onto the second and third shifts to keep up with SARS-CoV-2 test demands.

“In the beginning, I was so happy to be helping and working during the pandemic. I felt proud to be on the front lines, honing my skills and discovering what it was like to work under intense pressure. My work was good even when the work was hard. There was no room for error and no time to waste.”

At the Cleveland Clinic, Bator and her colleagues did not experience the equipment and supply shortages other clinics faced, at least not in the beginning of the pandemic. That began to change in late 2020.

Unrelenting Pace and Supply Shortages as Pandemic Grew

Despite their state-of-the-art equipment at the Cleveland Clinic, problems began to arise as the pandemic wore on.

“The machines we worked on were never meant to be run at this intensity and would frequently break down during the second shift. Those of us on the third shift were then left to deal with these problems despite our lack of technical training. Even worse, there were no supervisors on staff to help us problem-solve or troubleshoot, which only added to the pressure,” Bator noted.

And the high demand for testing left little room for new lab techs to hone any other skills.

“The pressure never let up. No matter how mind-numbing and repetitive the work could get, we had to work with constant vigilance, as there was absolutely no room for error,” she added.

Eventually, Bator left the Cleveland Clinic for a county hospital to “get off the graveyard shift and begin working on more than just COVID testing,” she wrote. However, soon after her move the Omicron variant hit, and she was once again running COVID tests.

Six months later she had had enough. She burned out and “dropped out of the industry after only a few years,” she wrote. And she was not the only one.

“The [Cleveland] Clinic began to hemorrhage techs who left for better opportunities at different hospitals or in different fields. Of my original 15-or-so-member team two years ago, only four remain in the same department, and only about half remain in the clinical lab field at all,” Bator wrote.

Burnout in Clinical Laboratories

Worker burnout is a state of mental and/or physical exhaustion caused by a heavy workload. Those experiencing burnout may feel emotionally overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed. Burnout can manifest in physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.

Burnout in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is an issue affecting all facets of healthcare. According to Forbes, a 2022 report by Elsevier Health found that 47% of US healthcare workers plan to leave their current role in the next two to three years, in some measure due to the enormous pressures healthcare workers face.

And workers are not the only ones paying attention to burnout. On May 23, 2022, the United States Surgeon General, Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, MD, issued a Surgeon General’s Advisory highlighting the need to address worker burnout.

“COVID-19 has been a uniquely traumatic experience for the health workforce and for their families, pushing them past their breaking point,” Murthy noted. “Now, we owe them a debt of gratitude and action. And if we fail to act, we will place our nation’s health at risk. This Surgeon General’s Advisory outlines how we can all help heal those who have sacrificed so much to help us heal.”  

Healthcare workers were facing high levels of burnout before 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic only made the issue worse. The National Academies of Medicine (NAM) reported in 2019 that worker burnout had reached a “crisis level,” and that during the pandemic, half of all healthcare workers reported symptoms of at least one mental health condition.

Training Programs Needed to Offset Worker Shortages and Retain Staff

As Bator reported in Daily Nurse, “The American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP)—the largest association for [medical] laboratory professionals—has stressed the importance of promoting MLS/MLT programs to produce certified, well-trained lab professionals, to fill major staffing shortages. However, filling the positions is only one piece of the puzzle.”

Bator points out that there wasn’t space nor time for guidance or advancement with the sheer volume of SARS-CoV-2 testing they had to complete.

“Late last year, during the worst of the Omicron variant surge, the only people I could commiserate with were the nurses who thanked us for running their pediatric ICU tests first,” she said. “They understood what we meant when we said we were drowning and stopped calling the lab to pester us for results because they knew that the positivity rate in Cuyahoga County was the third highest in the country and that the entire system was overwhelmed.”

Suzanna Bator is just one early-career worker among many healthcare professionals who have experienced this type of burnout due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As made evident by her piece, the pathology and clinical laboratory professions are losing workers who otherwise might have entered training programs to further their careers in those fields.

The issue of worker burnout is not just a temporary stressor on the clinical laboratory industry. Both worker burnout and staffing shortages in labs preceded the pandemic and will have continuing long-term effects unless steps are taken to reverse it.   

Ashley Croce

Related Information:

The Hidden Healthcare Heroes: A Lab Techs Journey Through the Pandemic

Burnout: Symptoms and Signs

Christian Siriano and Dov Charney Are Making Masks and Medical Supplies Now

Clinician of the Future Report 2022

New Survey Shows That Up to 47% of US Healthcare Workers Plan to Leave Their Positions by 2025

Taking Action Against Clinician Burnout: A Systems Approach to Professional Well-Being

New Surgeon General Advisory Sounds Alarm on Health Worker Burnout and Resignation

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