USA Health celebrates Medical Laboratory Professionals Week

This week USA Health is honoring the medical laboratory professionals who play a vital – but often hidden – role in patient care.

Celebrated annually the last full week of April, Medical Laboratory Professionals Week originated in 1975 as a way to increase understanding of and appreciation for the profession.

Marta Gale, director of the laboratory department at USA Health, said it’s important to acknowledge the “unseen heroes” of the health system.

“Our laboratory staff perform critical work, but because much of it is behind the scenes, they rarely receive the recognition they deserve,” Gale said. “Lab Week is a time to shine a light on what they do at USA Health.”

Naja Hadad, assistant director of the clinical laboratory at Children’s & Women’s Hospital, said most people are aware of what phlebotomists and laboratory clerks do, because patients interact with them. But, few people know what happens in the lab after their samples are taken.

“The laboratory would not be able to produce quality services and optimal patient care without its phlebotomists and clerks,” Hadad said. “Phlebotomists are the foundation of the laboratory; our results are only as good as the samples that are given to us.”

Clinical laboratory scientists, commonly known as medical technologists, are scientific fact-finders. They perform the tests that heavily impact clinical decision making by providing physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers with important information needed for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of diseases.

“They make use of hundreds of scientific procedures that have been devised to disclose the subtle changes that disease produces in the body,” Hadad said. “Studying organisms and cells under the microscope, analyzing the chemical composition of body fluids and secretions, they ferret out clues to illness that might not be detected any other way. A wise scientist once said, ‘Without the lab, you are only guessing.’”

Currently, more than 4,000 laboratory tests are available for clinical use, of which approximately 500 are ordered on a daily basis. In 2020, almost 1.9 million lab tests were performed at USA Health, Gale said.

Whereas clinical laboratory scientists typically analyze blood or other fluids from patients, technologists in anatomic pathology also prepare and evaluate tissue specimens, which include cervical scrapings (Pap smears), biopsies, surgical resections and needle aspirations.

The anatomic pathology department at USA Health comprises five divisions: surgical pathology, molecular, cytology, cytogenetics and electron microscopy.

“Technologists in these areas are highly specialized and knowledgeable of the testing and instrumentation in their respective areas,” said Ryan Foster, assistant director of laboratory services at University Hospital.

Histotechnologists prepare and process tissue samples for routine histologic techniques to be examined under a microscope by a pathologist. Similarly, electron microscopy technologists use highly specialized techniques to process and prepare specimens to be reviewed on the electron microscope. While histotechnologists prepare specimens for review of the tissue structure and changes to cellular appearance, electron microscopy techs prepare specimens for review of the actual structure of the cells.

Cytotechnologists prepare and evaluate human cellular samples from all body sites, under the direction of a pathologist, to detect pre-cancerous changes, cancer, benign tumors, infectious agents and inflammatory processes.

Molecular technologists use molecular biologic methods to diagnose and characterize acquired and inherited diseases, including the diagnosis of malignant, metabolic and infectious diseases. They also use advanced techniques including sequencing and proteomic analysis, with applications in personalized medicine.

Technologists in cytogenetics perform various techniques for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of inherited and acquired genetic diseases. They also perform chromosome analysis, fluorescence in-situ hybridization and other molecular assays.