Survey probes staff shortage in genomics labs

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It took an average of 16.5 weeks to fill 125 positions, based on data for 183 positions in 67 laboratories. Fifty-eight positions were reported as unfilled. Laboratories in the Northeast had the highest number of unfilled positions, followed by the South, Midwest, and West.

“We also asked about the minimal requirement for technologists, and most of the laboratories said either a bachelor’s degree or a bachelor’s degree with experience,” Dr. Leung said.

The last three technologists who left laboratories were reported to have been retained for an average of 7.5 years based on data for 186 positions. “The technologists in the cytogenetics laboratory were there for 9.5 years versus in molecular,” where they were retained for 3.68 years, Dr. Leung said. In combined laboratories it was 7.67 years.

The base salaries on average for entry-level positions and for five and 10 years of experience were found to be $61,647, $73,950, and $86,929, respectively, based on data from 64 respondents. Entry-level salaries on average were found to be highest in the West ($78,691), compared with the Northwest ($63,268), Midwest ($55,425), and South ($49,124). “When we stratified the data by laboratory specialties—molecular, cytogenetics, and combined discipline—there’s not really a significant difference in salary,” Dr. Leung said.

Twenty-seven of 63 respondents said their laboratories offer sign-on bonuses.

Raising awareness at the high school and undergraduate student levels is a must, Dr. Leung said.

He regularly visits Ohio State University undergraduate biology intro classes to talk to college freshmen students about clinical diagnostics in genomics laboratories. By the time students graduate, “it may be a little too late to learn about cytogenetics,” he said. He also speaks at career seminars.

“We should also increase the awareness of genomics in MLS programs,” where he gives lectures on molecular testing “to pique their interest in genetics,” he said. Dr. Leung and his coauthors suggest in their article “working with universities to establish molecular or cytogenetic avenues within their MLS programs or other undergraduate life science curricula.”

Combining molecular and cytogenetics training is another possibility, he said, just as the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics has done for clinical directors at the MD and PhD levels, such that a diplomate in laboratory genetics and genomics can direct and interpret clinical cytogenetics and molecular genetic analyses. “Maybe this is something we can do at the undergraduate level,” he suggests.

The survey is only the first of multiple steps needed to understand the critical shortage in the clinical genomics laboratory setting, Dr. Leung said. Hearing directly from technologists is critical, he and his coauthors write, and they plan to survey them. Dr. Leung and Michelle Axford, PhD, of SickKids in Toronto, are preparing a similar survey to study the technologist shortage in Canadian laboratories.

For now, “be an advocate for clinical genomic diagnostics,” he urges. “If you tell people cytogenetics is dead, it discourages new people from coming into the field and working in cytogenetics and in clinical genomics.” It’s not dead, he insists. It’s the study of chromosomes and how the abnormalities can affect disease and cancers, and the treatment implications. Crediting his Nationwide Children’s colleague Dr. Akkari, he said, “Different methodologies within cytogenetics may come and go, but cytogenetics is still here.”

And it needs people.

Amy Carpenter is CAP TODAY senior editor.