Workload of medical professionals in extracorporeal photopheresis for chronic graft-versus-host disease

Abstract

 Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) has become a new treatment option for steroid-resistant/intolerant chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in Japan. However, few facilities have introduced ECP therapy, and the areas where it is available are limited. Since it is thought to be due to human resource issues, we investigated the workload of medical professionals involved in ECP treatment. It was found that one ECP treatment took an average of about two hours, but the average treatment time was significantly shorter in cases where the double-needle mode, which allows blood to be drawn and returned simultaneously, was selected. And the average time involved by nurses and clinical engineers was significantly shorter in facilities where ECP treatment was performed in the hemodialysis center. Although there were differences in ECP treatment time and the time spent by medical professionals depending on the method of venous access and the location of the facility where ECP was performed, the workload of medical professionals was high. In the future, it will be necessary to share information on efforts to reduce the workload of medical professionals for the establishment of a system that can provide ECP treatment to patients requiring ECP treatment.