How quality control during human embryo culture leads to improved IVF outcomes

Quality management in IVF clinics today, focus on creating an optimal environment for embryo culture. Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) in clinical laboratories increase the chances of success of the IVF outcome, and embryologists play a crucial role in quality assessments to make sure highest standards are maintained.

Working to imitate the natural process of reproduction, except with more precision and certainty, an embryologist is directly involved in helping couples conceive their children – by ensuring healthier embryos, proper embryo implantation as well as assisting with In Vitro Fertilization, maintaining clinical records and running tests on eggs and embryos. That said, when it comes to quality maintenance, there are plenty of crucial decisions left to embryologists.

Goral Gandhi ( Indo Nippon IVF Clinic ) an embryologist in India who has established several training programmers for practicing embryologists and ascertained guidelines on good practice for IVF laboratories, discussed about the quality practices contributing to performance and success in the embryo laboratory.

“QC is a rigorous process that is performed in all IVF labs. The guidelines are not restricted to the clinical laboratory protocol, but cover every aspect of the process including staff, equipment and safety, quality control, and medical training. However, the onus is majorly on the team of embryologists that carry out the entire procedure. I always lay extra emphasis on good laboratory practice and train my embryologists to perform their work with utmost diligence, with the greatest of their abilities,” explained Gandhi.

Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) today has evolved into branches that not only help parents conceive but also treat specific hormone related illnesses. It does not only refer to IVF but also the treatments tailored to patients’ unique conditions.

Another embryologist Evelyn E. Neuber, Ph. D., HCLD (ABB), Clinical Research Coordinator at the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services at UCONN, tells us about the quality protocols followed in a clinical laboratory.
“I verify and document countless QC measurements, including the room temperature, the pH of the media used to grow the embryos, lot numbers of reagents, microscope temperature settings, and gas tank levels. Only when I am 100% certain that everything is in optimal working order do I open the IVF lab for patients,” she said.

Embryologists work dedicatedly on maximizing the chance of success of IVF and minimize risk. With a wide range of new reproductive options available to patients, the quality assurance and control has become a mandate to help achieve the desired outcome, and maintain the best of health for patients and their off springs.
“We critically work on quality parameters in terms of checks and protocols we follow in our lab when it comes to equipment, pressure modules, quality control of culture medium and disposables, handling of oocytes and spermatozoa, evaluation of results such as fertilization rates, cleavage rates, embryo quality, pregnancy rates, implantation rates, survival rate for frozen embryos, etc,” added Goral Gandhi (Indo Nippon IVF).

Performing all the core embryology techniques – eggs retrieval, ICSI, biopsies, and cryopreservation, and quality controls, the work of an embryologist, thus, determines the efficacy of the IVF process.

HOW LIFE BEGINS IN THE HANDS OF AN EMBRYOLOGIST?

A critical part of the IVF process, embryologists like Dr. Goral Gandhi are crucial in ensuring healthy conception and babies through Assisted Reproduction Techniques.

Assisted reproduction depends largely on how the embryos are developed and pre-selected to improve the chances of a successful IVF, and the work of an embryologist revolves around the process. From the point of collecting eggs to transferring embryos, the role of an embryologist is crucial in the entire process of IVF.

Ensuring the safety of patients’ fertility materials in the form of egg and sperms, and helping patients improve their chance at pregnancy during an IVF cycle, embryologists help childless parents procreate healthy babies. Surely for couples longing for children, the embryologists act like a ray of hope, but how do they make test tube miracles happen?

Critical role of an embryologist during an IVF cycle

The process of procreating a future baby in a lab sounds overwhelming but frames the everyday job of an embryologist. In the IVF treatment, an embryologist majorly takes over the process during the phase of egg retrieval.

Goral Gandhi (Indo Nippon IVF ) a professional embryologist, who dedicates her time and efforts in helping patients conceive says, “The ultimate objective of any ART procedure is the birth of a healthy baby which can be achieved through an elective single embryo transfer. Our roles require a great degree of precision and care when it comes to patients’ precious genetic material in the form of eggs, sperms and embryos. The process of embryo selection for the best possible IVF results is critical to the role of an embryologist, as our decisions impact a patient’s success with IVF.”

Goral Gandhi (Indo Nippon IVF )  has actively worked towards the science of ART and IVF in India. Training more than 300 embryologists, she has educated doctors, scientists and embryologists in various aspects of IVF, embryology, and laboratory management. She also conducts ART workshops, including training in IUI, IVF, ICSI, Verification, and Trouble Shooting in India, UAE, and Jordon.

Explaining the process and the defined role embryologists play, Evelyn E. Neuber, Ph. DCLD (ABB), Clinical Research Coordinator at the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services at UCONN says “During egg retrieval, a doctor collects follicular fluid containing an egg from a patient’s ovary and then hands it to the embryologist who is responsible for isolating the egg from the liquid and preparing it for insemination with the sperm; during embryo transfer, the embryologist loads the embryo onto the catheter and hands it forward to do the MD embryo transfer.”

That said, it can be concluded that the main part of professional baby-making, which is embryonic development– from retrieval to maturation, lies under the supervision and control of an embryologist. “Embryologists are fertility experts with a wide-ranging role. We are also critical to a patient’s journey towards parenthood although we work behind the scenes most of the time. For example, we are responsible for fusing the sperm and egg extracted from the patient, hoping that it will lead to successful embryo development. Once the eggs are collected and the sperm is washed and prepared, the embryologist gets to work,” explained Alberto Liñán Tegedor, Director of the IVF laboratory and Embryologist at IVI Middle East Fertility Clinic in Oman.

Not only that, but they also perform extended roles by emotionally and medically supporting their patients and offering them the leverage to plan parenthood whenever they want through the process of embryo verification.

Thus, embryologists play a key role in delivering happiness to parents through successful pregnancies. It is, however, majorly a result of successful scientific advances and awareness around the help available for couples dealing with infertility that embryologists today see and perform miracles in the form of healthy test-tube babies.