TAG:
Medical technologist
A medical laboratory scientist (MLS) (also referred to as a medical technologist, a clinical scientist, or clinical laboratory technologist) is a healthcare professional who performs chemical, hematological, immunologic, microscopic, and bacteriological diagnostic analyses on body fluids such as blood, urine, sputum, stool, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), peritoneal fluid, pericardial fluid, and synovial fluid, as well as other specimens. Medical laboratory scientists work in clinical laboratories as well as hospitals, physician’s offices, reference labs, biotechnology labs and non-clinical industrial labs.
In the United States, a medical laboratory scientist (MLS), medical technologist (MT) or clinical laboratory scientist (CLS, California only) typically earns a bachelor’s degree in clinical laboratory science, biomedical science, medical technology or in a life / biological science (biology, biochemistry, microbiology, etc.), in which case certification from an accredited training program is also required. Medical technologists who are certified and in good standing by a number of certification bodies, including the National Medical Laboratory Science Council or the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) are entitled to use the credential “MLS” after their names.
Subspecialties also requiring a four-year degree include cytotechnologists, who study cells and cellular anomalies, and histotechnologists, who work on the detection of tissue abnormalities and the treatment for the diseases causing the abnormalities.
In addition, there are also medical laboratory technicians (MLTs) who earn two-year degrees plus certification.
In the United States, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA ’88) define the level of qualification required to perform tests of various complexity. Clinical laboratory scientists, medical technologists and medical laboratory scientists are the highest level of qualification, and are generally qualified to perform the most complex clinical testing including HLA testing (also known as tissue typing) and blood type reference testing.
Most medical technologists are generalists, skilled in all areas of the clinical laboratory. However some are specialists, qualified by unique undergraduate education or additional training to perform more complex analyses than usual within a specific field. Specialties include clinical biochemistry, hematology, coagulation, microbiology, bacteriology, toxicology, virology, parasitology, mycology, immunology, immunohematology (blood bank), histopathology, histocompatibility, cytopathology, genetics, cytogenetics, electron microscopy, and IVF labs.
Medical technologists with such a specialty may use additional credentials, such as “SBB” (Specialist in Blood Banking) from the American Association of Blood Banks, or “SH” (Specialist in Hematology) from the ASCP.
In the United States, Medical Laboratory Scientists can be certified and employed in infection control. These professionals monitor and report infectious disease findings to help limit iatrogenic and nosocomial infections. They may also educate other healthcare workers about such problems and ways to minimize them.
Online Distance Training Helps Labs Recruit & Retain More MTs
CEO SUMMARY: One surprise about online distance learning (ODL) programs for medical technologists (MT) is that even small hospital laboratories can use them to recruit and train more MTs. Across the United States, a growing number of labs are experiencing a shortage of MTs in their local …
Med Tech Training Via Long-Distance Programs
CEO SUMMARY: Students from as far away as Oregon and Hawaii are using the online distance training program at the Medical College of Georgia, located in Augusta, to get their Bachelor of Science degree and medical technologist certification. Because many regions do not have a local MT tra…
Eritrea Uses St. Louis For Reference Testing
CEO SUMMARY: On one level, it’s the classic story of volunteerism and help for a developing nation. But on another level, it’s a dramatic demonstration of how new technologies allow two hospital laboratories in St. Louis, Missouri to effectively provide reference laboratory tests and …
Jamaica Med Techs, Kaiser Permanente, Cytyc, Myriad Genetics, Bayer, CLMA
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS IN JAMAICA STAGE WALK-OUT IN JANUARY LABORATORY TECHS ARE NOT KNOWN to be a radical component of the labor movement. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Jamaica, where more than 80 of that country’s medical technologists walked off their jobs twice in January in…
New Trends in 2003 Affect Clinical Lab Services
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s our current list of macro trends that affect clinical laboratories, updated from the last list in January 2000. One bold prediction is that Medicare, as we know it, is on the verge of a major meltdown. Employers and consumers are also new forces to be reckoned with b…
Several Major Surprises Mark Events of 2002
CEO SUMMARY: It was a year when the two blood brothers got much bigger and expanded market share by buying their largest competitors. With patient safety as the goal, employers began active steps to force hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers to use quality management syst…
“November 18, 2002 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Antitrust regulators are signaling displeasure about a growing number of business activities in healthcare. Timothy Muris, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), was in Chicago on November 7 to address a group of lawyers and business people. He told them that the FTC “cont…
New Efforts to Boost Supply of MTs & MLTs
CEO SUMMARY: Most laboratorians are acutely aware that the nation’s pool of trained medical technicians and medical technologists is shrinking even as growing numbers of baby-boomer lab techs approach retirement. Meanwhile, training programs are feeding inadequate numbers of new med tec…
Understanding Demographics Of Med Tech Labor Supply
WHILE THERE’S BEEN PLENTY of publicity about the growing shortage of medical technologists (MT) and medical laboratory technicians (MLT), less attention has been paid to the factors which brought about this situation. For example, a careful study of ASCP (American Society of Clinical Patho…
Lab Competitors Pool Lab Data For Clinicians In British Columbia
CEO SUMMARY: In British Columbia, two commercial laboratory competitors have found common ground. BC Biomedical Laboratories and MDS Metro Laboratories are using LOINC to link their laboratory test databases. Physicians use a single system to access their patient’s test results, regardl…
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Volume XXXII, No. 6 – April 21, 2025
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