International IVF Initiative Podcast

Welcome to the latest episode of the I3 podcast where we’re going to be discussing a recent session held by I3 on Misconceptions which discussed a number of curious oddities within the studies of Embryology. It was called Misconceptions and we highly recommend you rewatch it to, scroll down for the link.

During the session there was a talk from Dr. Sourima Shivhare who is a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered Senior Clinical Embryologist, working at The Centre for Reproductive and Genetic Health, London. She is also a lecturer and external assessor on the MSc in Clinical Embryology (University of Oxford). Dr Shivhare spoke in more detail to Giles Palmer  about her insights from her studies, following on from a paper Giles had told her about by John Wallington, which debated the origins of Embryology.

The paper highlights how common European names such as Aristotle and Hippocrates shouldn’t be the only ones mentioned and Dr Shivhare discussed with Giles about her surprise at finding out that the concept of conception and embryology existed much earlier in one of the oldest scriptures. 

What was discussed: 

• Papers that have come out of Indian mentioning embryology in ancient scriptures and in the Koran, however, it is John Wallingford’s paper that mentions them
• Names within standard textbooks such as Aristotle, and Hippocrates - all-white European 
• How much of the history of Embryology is actually studied in training
• Currently, the definition of science is based on evidence - so can religious scriptures be considered primarily as they are then translated, meaning we can’t check for accuracy. 
• Hippocrates - Father of Medicine 500 BC
• The Veydic Period between 1500 - 300 BCE and the oldest scripture mentioning the development of the embryo in the womb,  mention within 24 hours something happening and the ‘bubble’ alluding to blastocyst. 
• Twin conception mentioned within the papers
• 17th Century - in Europe talking about pre-formations, before that in Asia conclusions on this development was being discussed.
• We shouldn’t get bogged down that these are religious texts as that is how words were spread at that time
• How the definition of religion has also changed vastly over the centuries   - more like a way of life rather than following a deity. 
• Great minds were often religious—unity between religion and science. 

You will also hear the after-party which took place after the session. 

Speakers include: Dr Don Rieger- Oddities in Reproductive Biology, Dr Sourima Biswas Shivhare- A little Less Eurocentric, Modestly Universal View of the History of Embryology and Dr Shubhangi Gangal - The Story of Subhash Mukhopadhyay

Watch the Misconceptions session here

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Welcome to another episode of the I3 podcast where you'll hear two after parties for the price of one! First up, you'll hear what happened after the More or Less webinar, which was all about timings of lab events and how important they are. Speakers who joined the I3 team were: Dr. Jason Swain and Dr. Rebecca  Holmes with Dr. Chelsey Leisinger, Dr. Denny Sakkas, Hubert Joris, Dr. Alessandra Alteri,  Tricia Adams

Watch the full webinar:

 What was discussed:

• Witnessing and time stamp access
• How time stamps are controversial  - some people want to see it and some don’t 
• How ideas are presented to the team 
• Using timestamp with difficult sperm cases - measuring the time to search for sperm 
• FET’s  - time issues and the impact it has on the embryology 
• The impact of the traffic light system in the UK
• The Use of ‘add on’s’ and whether there should be a cost? 
• Blastocyst debate
• Do they run shifts in the lab? 

In the second after party speakers included Dr. Pierre Comizzoli, Professor Marc Antoine Driancourt, Dr. Alison Bartolucci. Dr. Daniel Le Bourhis, Professor Islam M. Saadeldin, Dr. Eli Sellem and Dr. Antonio Capalbo

• International Society for Extracellular vesicles 
• Standards and oprations proceducres devleopd 
• Extracting extracellular vesicles in the Giant Panda and discussion about artificial insemination. 
• Discussions about life of Panda’s how they live in China and other countries have to pay rent to get to work with them. 
• Working with Panda’s is very stressful as any mistakes, cause issues

Watch the Might Molecules webinar here

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Welcome to the I3 Podcast discussing the corporate world of IVF and a contentious issue about the ageing population of embryolgists. In this episode you will hear the after party which followed on from a webinar with TJ Farnsworth is the CEO and Founder of Inception Fertility and Kathy Miller, Vice President, MedTech Laboratory Solutions.

What was discussed: 

• Issues in labs such as equipment not working
• Money invested into the business including investment in people 
• Importance of flexible working and looking after people better 
• Generation issue  - Giles talks about how the job changes everyday
• Issues in lack of motivation with younger embryologists in self-training - they’re rigid in their work hours and don’t stay and practice like doing a first ICSI
• Young and old embryologists don’t communicate effectively which needs attention 
• The expectation of people coming out of college thinking they are ready when the older generation feels they aren’t. 
• How the pandemic impacted labs and processes and procedures 

In the second part of the podcast, you'll hear from Roisin O'Raghallaigh, Shaista Chhatriwal Sadruddin, Vivian Kimble, Maria Liossi, Victoria Almela talking about their experience as the younger generation of embryologists.

What was discussed:

• Older embryologists set in their ways - not wanting to change anything, not being flexible 
• Younger might be open and adaptable to new approaches 
• Hard to communicate different types of efficiencies which is hard for the older generation to grasp the ‘why fix something that isn’t broken’ mentality 
• Opportunities to train - often recruitment is during busy times so you need someone already trained up, rather than training people up ahead of these times. 
• Complaints about there being a lack of embryologists but older generations aren’t willing to train, possible they leave it too long, rather than training them when there is the capacity to train them not when the lab is already a stretched 
• Modern embryologists working smarter and harder - being more efficient 
• Being told they are a lazy generation is offensive
• The work culture of society is changing as are employee needs - so employers need to be attuned to this and it’s toxic to make sweeping statements across generations. 
• No need to make your own media when you can buy it - skills have become redundant 

You can watch the full webinar here

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Welcome to this episode of the I3 podcast where we go Beyond the Webinar, and we continue our focus on UKRAINE here at the International IVF Initiative. 

We’ve been following the amazing efforts of three Ukrainian embryologists and their teams to safely move frozen gametes and embryos out of UKRAINE and if you haven’t heard the previous episode do go back and have a listen. 

First up you’ll hear the pre-meeting chat with Dr. Jacques Cohen and Giles Palmer from I3 and panelists Dr. Pavlo Mazur, Dr. Uliana Dorofeyeva, Olena Novikova and Dr. Olga Chaplia 

What was discussed:

• What to do from the embryologist aspect, what do you do as a cynic and how to you prepare for tomorrow, next week, next year.
• The gravity of the situation - this has never happened to embryologists before. 
• Perception of people in Ukraine people not being treated like other Western counties - treated like white trash. 
• Why Ukrainian clinics have flourished over the years, talented staff, high education level in Ukraine, lot of interest in Biology and Medicine. 
• Why does this not happen in Hungary or Poland which are EU countries
• How easy it is to import instruments for IVF such as time-lapse machines or disposables
• How almost all clinics are privately owned - not regulated by the government so they can petition for money to be spent to stay up to date. 
• Discussion about clinics in the US in comparison 
• Tim Sharpe - Conflict expert talks about appearance of Dewers could raise alarm with military personnel at the Border.
• The enormous global response to what has happened to these Ukraininan embryologists who have been displaced by the conflict and a huge uptake from industry leaders to help this highly skilled group find jobs.
• How sister clinics and those in neighbouring countries have been reaching out to help, and patent support has been maintained, despite clinics having to close.  

The recording from this session will be available here soon

Watch the previous session with Tim Sharpe

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Welcome to this edition of the I3 Podcast, where we're joined by three of our colleagues in Ukraine, to hear how they are and what has happened to their work life in the last two weeks since War broke in Ukraine.

First up, you'll hear from Pavlov Mazur, an embryolgist in Kyiv at Nadiya Clinic who explains how he is not working, clinic closed. The second conversation is with Uliana Dorofeyeva, Medcial Director at Ovogene Egg Bank who spoke about the logistics of moving materials and the regulations across the border. The final conversation is will Birol Aydin, Lab Director-Scientific Advisor at Ovogene Egg Bank who had been working with 40 clinics

What was discussed:

• What happened to close down the clinic on 25th Feb - everything was put into storage. 
• IVF has been continuing in Western Ukraine although they not starting any new cycles, they are trying to finish frozen cycles. 
• Embryo transfers did go ahead. 
• How he and his family are packed but at the time of this conversation, he felt Kyiv is was the safest place to be due to it’s size, they have electricity, internet and there is still access to food.  
• Issues around Liquid Nitrogen  - what they went through in 2014 when all the embryos died as no-one could supply it. 
•  Trying to get materials out - had lots of enquiries from international clients. Kyiv clinic closed. 
• Permission from Eshre granted on 8/3/22 to support movements of gametes from Ukraine to a close territory or who have 1 border, or that are close. 
• How Patient information is being looked after 
• Approx 30 babies from Surrogates have been born so far
• Birol explains how they reacted when war broke out - what they did, step by step - how they left Ukraine and then came back. 
• Last several years, Ukraine IVF has really increased in popularity for surrogacy - up to 100 cycles with 60-70% getting pregnant. 
• What is happening with the women who are pregnant - how they are trying to move them with some success. 
• New born babies connected with IP - a lot of protection given, yet can’t say 100% are OK.
• That some surrogates are having abortions. 
• IP’s are being really supportive, not just worrying for their child but for the health of their Surogates. 
• A lot of the surrogates don’t speak English which makes it difficult but now the help is limited. 
• Having moved donor embryos and oocytes to Sweden, but courier company can’t work - they’re all male and have to stay in Ukraine 
• Patients now want to move their embryos to their country - needs to be arranged. 
• They don’t know when they can move back to Ukraine to their facility. 
• Birol is the only male able to leave along with 6 embryologists, 70% of medical team are female, they’ve had to be relocated. Car registered as a medical courier car.
• The process of moving eggs and embryos. 
• How they reacted when war broke out - what they did, step by step - how they left Ukraine and then came back. 

You can watch Birol in conversation with I3 here

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We're going behind the scenes once again with I3, to hear more about the highly popular topic, How Green is your IVF, discussing the common practice of single use products, products and the overuse of packaging. Speakers: Dani Smale, Roisin O’Raghallaigh, Rikard Ledin da Rosa - Vitrolife, Chip Calcagni

What was discussed: 

• Discussion about choices of products used and how companies look at how they can become more sustainable and holding the manufacturers to task to come up with innovations 
• How clinics can make sustainable choices but unless they can use better tools and products the issue is never going to end. 
• Taking the issue to the larger companies before the clinics  - will that cause a huge delay? 
• Importance of having this conversation with the big companies as they all have a green agenda. 
• How shareholders are demanding objectives are met. 
• The waste from plastic items used and unnecessary packaging that is used to keep things sterile. Can this be reduced? 
• Paperwork that comes with products - could extra material be reduced. 
• Vitrolife - talking about what sustainability means. 
• How to bring consciousness of sustainability up in the decision-making matrix? 
• Could putting pressure on the suppliers help? 
• How the sustainability specialist at Vitro Life position came about  - how Rikard’s role is to speak with top management to make these decisions. 

To watch the full session go here

In this second part of our chat we invited Rikard Ledin da Rosa from Vitrolife to join us again in a different timezone and Anna Gorbunova who Giles met on Linked In and invited her to the webinar.

What was discussed:

• Whether there is a deadline for when clinics need to improve their sustainability 
• Movements within the investor markets - who needs reports about issues such as CO2
• Sustainability reports expected 
• Interactions that could be done at home - to reduce clinic visits
• How Clinical aspects from egg retrieval to monitoring of follicular stimulation needs to be discussed further. 
• Could there be more AI involvement, remote ultrasounds? 

Watch session 2 here

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We've got a bumper episode for you today, a BOGOF in fact as we're sharing two sessions that took place after our I3 webinars.

First up you will hear the conversation from after our 'i3 goes Maverick' session from October 2021, discussing the profession of embryology and how it’s perceived today as a career along with the salaries available and we’re joined by our panel including: Dr. Gerry Celia, Dr. Mara Simopoulou, Ashley Wong, Dr. Betsy Cairo, Huey Huynh, Dr. Michael Baker, Salustiano Ribeiro, Dr. Bryan Kloos , Dr. Sheela S. Ali. 

Topics Discussed: 

• Burnout - how long people stay and whether the right people are coming into the lab, that the science isn’t a good fit for them 
• Survey on mental health showing the differences between young and older embryologists 
• Higher turnover with younger people, they go off and do something else. 
• New generation - softer - overworking was a badge, it was a different mentality, it wasn’t a good thing as it set bad habits and people felt guilty when they weren’t working.
• The new generation is different, they need to understand constructive criticism
• Loving what you do as an embryologist and working in ART
• Where is the passion - is Embryology yours? 
• Where people move to from Embryology.. why 
• People who think of this as a career Vs a job
• Salaries - how it used to be attractive and now it doesn’t compare well to what else is available for young people. 
• Why aren’t salaries increasing? 
• The passion that embryologists have 
• Lack of resources when it comes to hiring - not enough budget 
• How to retain talent - the distinction between clinics who have looked after their embryologists during the pandemic and those who don’t 
• Hiring practices 

You also get to hear the conversation from our last I3 session of 2021, called 'Carry on Inseminating 'which includes a panel of Dr. Bronte Stone & Kimberly Kienast, Dr. Caroline McCaffrey, Nick Campion, Cynthia Hudson, VP Clinical Strategy at TMRW Life Sciences and Shaista Sandruddin.

Topics Discussed:

• Witnessing - How do we remove or eliminate opportunities for mistakes
• How to remove or reduce risk 
• How to shorten the chain of custody 
• Use of gradients  and use of Stickers 
• Human error and how the number of times things are handled by humans, is begging for mistakes where could robots come in eg. ICSI
• How Zymotit removes the human element

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Welcome to another episode of the I3 podcast, where we're going Beyond the Webinar once again, as we know you are enjoying these conversations our panels are having in the 'after party' zoom. In this episode you'll hear from Moderators: Alejandro Chavez-Badiola MD and David Sable MD as well as Matt Pettit, Dr. Dimitri Consten, Ms Unika Alexander and I3 Members Jaques Cohen and Giles Palmer.

What was discussed:

• Increased workload
• The issues of stickers not being good enough
• Tracing
• Drift
• Electronic Witnessing
• Procesess
• Listen to the session here

Let us know what you think of this podcast and if you'd like to hear more behind the scenes. You can email us [email protected] or follow us.

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Welcome to the latest episode of the I3 podcast, where once again we're taking you beyond the webinar to share more of the conversations that our panel have after their discussions. The session was called 'KPIS - KEEP PLODDING INDEFINITELY OR KEEP PERFORMING IMPECCABLY?!' and you will hear from the Moderators:  Dr. Sharon Mortimer & Dr. Dean Morbeck along with Dr. Alison Campbell, Katie Heywood, Dr Aidita James and Dr. Jacques Cohen and Dr. Denny Sakkas.

What was discussed:

• The Gold standard' patient
• Predictive value
• How to Quanitfy the 'Unexplained' group
• Getting Feed back
• You can view the full episode here

We'd love to hear your feedback on whether you are enjoying these behind the scenes episodes, as we have plenty more.

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Welcome to Episode 4 of the I3 podcast and here we’re taking you backstage as each time we have a webinar, we all meet afterwards for what we like to call the “After party’ giving our panel the chance to discuss the conversation further and we are planning to share snippets of these conversations with you. This episode is our CRYO Storage, one of the most successful webinars, with lots of questions and scroll down to access a link to it.

What was discussed:

In this episode you will hear from the moderators: Dr. Kimball Pomeroy and Dr. Mathew Tomlinson as well as our speakers Dr. Mathew Tomlinson, Dr. Mitchel Schiewe and Colleen Marea Quinn. You will also hear from I3 Founders Jacques Cohen, Peter Nagy, Thomas Elliott and Giles Palmer

What was discussed: 

• How forgotten embryos are handled in terms of consent and paperwork
• What if an embryo is lost or something else goes wrong? 
• What if there is damage in the freezing process
• Costs and what is driving them up
• Using video to cover yourself 
• How there are so many couriers and samples moving about 
• Missing embryos and who is to blame.  
• Listen to the session here 

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