Originially posted on stltoday. com. Click the button to be taken to the article.
Until the cornonavirus outbreak, most people never gave much thought to laboratory testing. When your doctor says, “we’ll send it to the lab,” you rightly expect to get timely and accurate test results back. But this year’s pandemic spotlights that what occurs in clinical laboratories is, in fact, quite complex, requiring a high degree of expertise, collaboration and support.
As a resident pathologist, I am a doctor who specializes in laboratory medicine. Pathologists lead dedicated teams of highly trained medical laboratory professionals. In fact, laboratory tests inform and impact 70% of the decisions made regarding patients nationwide.
This week is National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week and an appropriate time to reflect on the hard work and dedication of these skilled clinicians. Behind each one of the more-than 51,000 COVID-19 tests that have been performed in Missouri to date, there are scores of laboratory professionals who are critical to producing these results. Please use this week to help honor the hundreds of laboratory professionals who continue to go to work each day to support you, your health and the health of our community.
During this difficult time, please be assured that here in St. Louis, and across the country, pathologists, laboratory professionals and public health experts staffing these medical laboratories are working harder than ever to deliver results to those in need. We will get through this — together.