What Is a Medical Laboratory Scientist?

General Health
Written By Gina Craig
 

More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Brandy Gunsolus

In this program:

What does a medical laboratory scientist do exactly? Respected medical laboratory scientist Dr. Brandy Gunsolus explains medical laboratory science and the training and certification involved.

Transcript

Interviewer:

Can you describe what a medical laboratory scientist is?

Dr. Brandy Gunsolus:

So, a medical laboratory scientist is a laboratory professional that has specialized in clinical or medical testing. These are professionals that are testing in your hospitals, in your physician offices, in public health labs, in state labs, the big reference labs like your Quest and your Labcorp, these are the people that are doing your testing, interpreting these results and giving your results back to your physician. What many people may not know is that nearly everyone who's a medical laboratory scientist has a bachelor's degree. Many even have master's degrees and even some with PhDs. And so this is not a profession that you can just graduate high school and walk right in and learn on the job. This is a profession that you do have to go to school. There are accredited programs out there and once you complete that program and you graduate, then you have to take a board certification exam, you pass that exam and you are now a certified medical laboratory scientist. I will say that there is a shortage of medical laboratory scientists throughout the entire country and if anyone is interested in being in medicine and doing testing, but may not necessarily want the direct patient care, then medical laboratory science may be for you. And you can Google Medical Laboratory Science programs online and check out the ones that are closest to you.

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