Returning to safe IVF lab operations in the COVID era

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a great need to discuss disaster management and risk mitigation within the ART industry. In many cases, standard operating protocols and current regulations/requirements are adequate, but what have the past few months revealed and what should be considered when restarting IVF treatments?

In this recorded webinar (from April 2020), Dr. Jason E. Swain and Dr. Charles Bormann will discuss disaster preparedness, and the new realities and considerations COVID-19 will impose on day-to-day operations within IVF Clinics and Infertility Practices. The webinar is moderated by Dr. Mark Larman PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Vitrolife.

Topics include:

Disaster preparedness plans
Practice management and best practices
Regulatory changes
Laboratory shutdown and start-up considerations.

Moderator - Dr. Mark Larman
Mark´s research on cryopreservation and IVF has taken him around the globe. After he completed his Post-doctoral studies in the UK he worked with Prof David Gardner in the US and Australia. Mark then returned to the US and is now CSO at Vitrolife.

Presenter - Dr. Jason E. Swain
Jason E. Swain, PhD, HCLD is the Corporate Laboratory Director of the CCRM IVF Laboratory Network, overseeing a growing network of 11 clinical IVF laboratories in North America. He is responsible for laboratory design, protocol/procedure implementation, as well as staff training and ongoing quality control monitoring for the network embryology, andrology and endocrinology laboratories. Jason also oversees quality control of the CCRM Donor Egg Bank. Dr. Swain is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rutgers University as well as at the University of Minnesota. He completed his BSc at Hillsdale College in his native Michigan, his MSc in Animal Science at Purdue University and his PhD in Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan in the lab of Dr. Gary Smith, PhD, HCLD. He then had clinical embryology training with Thomas “Rusty” Pool in San Antonio, TX, before becoming a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of OB/GYN and IVF lab director at the University of Michigan. Dr. Swain has published over 45 peer-reviewed articles, edited and authored several book chapters and contributed to various other publications within the field of assisted reproduction.

Dr. Swain has served on various committees for ASRM, ESHRE, PCRS and other organizations focused on assisted reproduction. He has given numerous regional, national and international invited lectures on various topics related to the IVF laboratory, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, sits on the editorial board for 6 journals and acts an ad hoc reviewer for over 25 others. His primary research interests include pursuit of methods to improve in vitro embryo culture conditions through reduction of environmental stressors via modification of both the physical and chemical culture environment.

Presenter - Dr. Charles Bormann
Dr. Bormann is the IVF Laboratory Director at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and an Instructor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science at Iowa State University, he received a M.S. in Reproductive Physiology from Purdue University and a PhD. in Reproductive Physiology from the University of Connecticut and then undertook his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Bormann’s research interests include investigating the effects of maternal and environmental factors on oocyte and embryo quality and developing non-invasive methodologies for assessing human embryo developmental competency. Dr. Bormann has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international ART meetings. He has authored many peer-reviewed papers on various aspects of mammalian egg and embryo physiology. Dr. Bormann is the former president of the Society for Reproductive Biologists and Technologists and he is currently a board member on SART.