• Jason J Han, Max Shin, William L Patrick, Akhil Rao, Salim E Olia, Mark R Helmers, Amit Iyengar, John J Kelly, Benjamin Smood, Jacob T Gutsche, Christian Bermudez, and Marisa Cevasco.
• Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
• J. Cardiothorac. Vasc. Anesth. 2022 Jun 1; 36 (6): 166216691662-1669.

ObjectiveTo assess societal preferences regarding allocation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as a rescue option for select patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).DesignCross-sectional survey of a nationally representative sample.SettingAmazon Mechanical Turk platform.ParticipantsIn total, responses from 1,041 members of Amazon Mechanical Turk crowd-sourcing platform were included. Participants were 37.9 ± 12.6 years old, generally white (65%), and college-educated (66.1%). Many reported working in a healthcare setting (22.5%) and having a friend or family member who was admitted to the hospital (43.8%) or died from COVID-19 (29.9%).Measurements And Main ResultsAlthough most reported an unwillingness to stay on ECMO for >one week without signs of recovery, participants were highly supportive of ECMO utilization as a life-preserving technique on a policy level. The majority (96.7%) advocated for continued use of ECMO to treat COVID patients during periods of resource scarcity but would prioritize those with highest likelihood of recovery (50%) followed by those who were sickest regardless of survival chances (31.7%). Patients >40 years old were more likely to prefer distributing ECMO on a first-come first-served basis (21.5% v 13.3%, p < 0.05).ConclusionEven though participants expressed hesitation regarding ECMO in personal circumstances, they were uniformly in support of using ECMO to treat COVID patients at a policy level for others who might need it, even in the setting of severe scarcity.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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