Laboratories Celebrate National Medical Laboratory Week
Laboratories across the United States and Canada begin a weeklong celebration of their importance to healthcare on Sunday, April 24. The theme for this year’s National Medical Laboratory Week is Laboratory Professionals: The Heart Of The Medical Investigation Team. 2005 marks the 30th anniversary of the first official observance of National Medical Laboratory Week in 1975.
President George W. Bush recognized the observance by pointing out that the nation “is blessedwith many fine medical professionals who are committed to protecting and saving lives. During National Medical Laboratory Week, we honor the contributions of pathologists, physicians, scientists, technologists, technicians and others involved in the field of laboratory medicine.”
The President pointed out that “these dedicated men and women also stand ready to serve as critical first responders in the event of a public health emergency.”
The nation’s laboratories are particularly mindful of their role in the nation’s defense against bioterrorism. Yet the numbers of laboratory personnel — laboratory technicians and technologists and pathologists — continue to decline. More and more schools of laboratory medicine are closing.
Because the diagnosis of the majority of medical conditions begins with a laboratory test of one kind or another, solving the laboratory medicine personnel shortage is a top priority of the organizations which sponsor National Medical Laboratory Week.
This year, ten laboratory organizations have joined together to promote the importance of their members’ work. They are:
— American Society for Clinical Pathology ( www.ascp.org )
— American Association of Blood Banks ( www.aabb.org )
— American Association for Clinical Chemistry ( www.aacc.org )
— American Medical Technologists ( www.amt1.com[/url] )
— American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science ( www.ascls.org )
— American Society of Cytopathology ( www.cytopathology.org )
— Association of Public Health Laboratories ( www.aphl.org )
— Clinical Laboratory Management Association ( www.clma.org )
— College of American Pathologists ( www.cap.org )
— National Society for Histotechnology ( www.nsh.org )
More than 10 billion laboratory tests are performed in the United States each year; laboratory tests results comprise an estimated 70 percent of a patient’s medical records and more than 297,000 medical laboratory personnel are employed in the United States.
For more information about this year’s National Medical Laboratory Week or contact a laboratory in your community; for the full text of the President’s letter to laboratory personnel, visit http://www.labweek.org
For more information about common laboratory tests, visit: http://www.labtestsonline.org
