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Unsung heroes
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Posted on Apr 22 2005
National Medical Laboratory Week, which will be celebrated this April 24-30, is a time to honor the more than 280,000 medical laboratory professionals across the nation who perform and interpret laboratory tests that save lives and keep people healthy. They are among the many unsung heroes of medical healthcare who are seldom seen.
The theme of lab week this year is “Laboratory Professionals: The Heart of the Medical Investigation Team.”
Using state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation, laboratory professionals help prevent disease by detecting unknown health problems and by aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of existing conditions by giving accurate, timely test results. The laboratory tests results comprise an estimated 70 percent of the patients’ medical records and are vital to physicians’ diagnosis and treatment of illness and disease. Results of laboratory tests often identify the presence of disease in its earliest stages, when the possibilities of a cure are greatest and when treatment is least costly.
Medical laboratory professionals represent a variety of specialties, including pathologists, medical technologists, clinical laboratory scientists, medical laboratory technicians, histotechnologists, histologic technicians, cytotechnologists, cytopathologists, phlebotomy technicians, microbiologists, laboratory managers, and medical educators. These professionals can be found in hospitals, doctors’ offices, clinics, research facilities, blood banks, public health centers, the Armed Forces, universities, industry and right here on Saipan.
Within the laboratory, these highly educated, experienced and licensed medical laboratory professionals may work in chemistry, serology, hematology, cytology, microbiology, immunology, coagulation, histology, urinalysis, molecular biology, or the blood bank.
For more information visit the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s Website at www.labweek.org.
For more information about Clinical Laboratory Science as a career, or information on lab tests visit the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science Website at www.ascls.org or www.labtestsonline.org.
Paul Sturm MT (ASCP)
As Matuis, Saipan
