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Cellular therapy processing laboratory: a workforce hiring nightmare

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 58, pages 735–737 (2023)Cite this article

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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in innumerable challenges to healthcare in the United States (US), including significant disruptions to hospitals’ and clinical laboratories’ workforce availability [1]. Notably, some reports have shown that women have been affected and lost or left jobs at higher rates than men, secondary to various factors including decreased childcare options and increased costs for childcare [2]. Further, there is a known, and increasing gap in the current medical laboratory workforce and the number of trained individuals required in the ensuing decades, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic [3]. These medical workforce disturbances, particularly among medical technologists and medical laboratory scientists, have contributed to difficulties in providing critical services to patients with challenging and/or emergent medical conditions.

Multiple reports have delineated the challenges generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and concomitant blood bank workforce shortages on the US blood supply [4,5,6,7]. Conversely, within clinical (non-research) cellular therapy laboratories, much is unknown regarding the state of the workforce, although anecdotally, the cellular therapy workforce is also facing a shortage. Cellular and gene therapies are used to induce remission or cure multiple malignant and non-malignant hematologic disorders that may be fatal without treatment. However, notwithstanding the presence of several international independent nonprofit organizations who have developed rigorous standards and regulations for stem cell transplantation programs and cellular therapy laboratories [8,9,10], the totality of the US clinical cellular therapy laboratory workforce and the associated vacancy rate, retirement rate, and minimum job qualifications continue to be undefined.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Garrett S. Booth, Joel Trushinski & Deva Sharma

  2. Department of Medicine, Hematology, Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Section, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Bipin N. Savani

  3. Department of Pathology, Division of Transfusion Medicine and Hemostasis, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA

    Brian D. Adkins

  4. Department of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Irvine, CA, USA

    Jennifer S. Woo & Rickey Bertram

  5. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt-Meharry Center for Excellence in Sickle Cell Disease, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Deva Sharma

  6. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Jeremy W. Jacobs

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  1. Garrett S. Booth
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  2. Bipin N. Savani
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  8. Jeremy W. Jacobs
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Contributions

GSB and JWJ performed the research, drafted the manuscript, and revised the manuscript. BNS, BDA, JSW, RB, JT, and DS revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Garrett S. Booth.

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Booth, G.S., Savani, B.N., Adkins, B.D. et al. Cellular therapy processing laboratory: a workforce hiring nightmare. Bone Marrow Transplant 58, 735–737 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-023-01972-y

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