345.8: Professional Employment in Patients on Ventricular Assist Device Support – A Multi-Center Prevalence Study

Professional Employment With Left Ventricular Assist Device Support: Does Working With an LVAD Allow It to Work Too?

“…1 As patients are living longer, and better, with CF-LVAD support, leveraging social determinants of health in understanding psychosocial outcomes is an important consideration. Professional employment for societal reintegration in LVAD recipients is not routinely described, and in their recent manuscript, Kugler et al 2 delve into this issue in attempt to better understand the lived experience of this patient cohort.…”

“…In the study by Kugler et al , 2 the authors aimed to assess return to professional employment following LVAD implantation for patients of working age, as a surrogate marker for functional recovery and psychosocial reintegration. A high response rate in patient-reported outcomes was achieved, thus indicating likely valid conclusions under the circumstances.…”

“…The number of patients on LVAD support with professional employment is small, but the study by Kugler et al . 2 aids in our understanding of factors associated with working status, namely, younger age and higher education. Whether or not improved HRQoL is a driving or resultant factor of employment is difficult to ascertain and may overlap.…”