After fifty years as a "Laboratorian" and as an active member of the medical profession, I feel confident that I can speak with assurance regarding the value of the "Clinical Laboratory" to our society. A graduate, practicing medical technology MT(ASCP) contributes tremendous value to individual patient care, often under restricted circumstances, almost always without recognition and at a salary less than other paramedical professionals.

I have observed that academic achievements of Medical Technologists prepare them to excel when pursuing higher degrees such as PhD's, MD's, Law degrees and etc.

Robert B. Adams, M.D.

Montgomery, Alabama

When I started Louisiana Tech in 1974, the major venue for the pre-medical/pre-dental school tract was a Zoology degree. Soon after starting college I noticed that students who did not get into medical school ended up with a dead end degree that left them with few choices for a career. I soon started looking for a way to make sure I would have a job/career should I not get into medical school. My mother was a BS Medical Technologist (AMT certification) and directed me to look into the Medical Technology degree program at Louisiana Tech. I discovered that many of the courses were the same as the pre-med requirements, so I made the decision of changing my major to Medical Technology making up the additional, required courses that I needed for the pre-med curriculum as needed (I still was considered pre-med as far as the school was concerned, even though Medical Technology was not an official tract). Besides having some insurance in place for a future job/career should I not get into medical school by entering the Medical Technology program, I thought that the broad exposure to medicine and clinical laboratory services by going through the Medical Technology program would benefit me should I make it into medical school.

I was correct on that assumption. The advantages showed up as early as my second year of medical school, at least concerning course work, and placed me at clear advantage in the third and fourth clinical years of medical school. Having insight into the lab, how it works, expectations and limitations of the lab and the use of clinical laboratory tests in patient management and treatment made my clinical years much easier. An additional advantage presented itself after I started medical school. I was able to work as a part-time medical technologist in local hospital laboratories my first two years, which really helped financially, as well as provided me with additional insight into the medical and health care professions.

Although I made many people upset in the field of Medical Technology with my career tract at the time (I was accused of taking a position of someone who really wanted to pursue Medical Technology as a career), it is clear to me that today's students will be much better prepared for the future practice of medicine using the health care professional related college/university programs as a tract for pre-medical or pre-dental school programs with benefits for everyone including patients, society, medical schools and will offer one a better understanding of our much needed (and unfortunately often under valued) health care professionals one interacts with after graduating medical school.

Rickey O. Ryals, M.D., Pathologist

Personal information: Graduated from Louisiana Tech University in Medical Technology, 1978, Board certified in Medical Technology ASCP 1978, attended Louisiana State University Medical School-New Orleans, Pathology residency completed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. My choice of Pathology as a career was directly related to and influenced by my experience in Medical Technology

Regarding medical technology as a stepping stone toward more advanced degrees such as a degree in medicine, I found that completing my degree in medical technology and my subsequent certification through the American Society for Clinical Pathologist to be a great assess in my application to medical school in 1986. I feel that my training helped not only in preparing for the MCAT which is the examination required for medical school application but also helped later during my school experiences. Specifically in classes that required laboratory knowledge, my medical technology degree was a great asset.

Courses such as microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, anatomy, and microanatomy, and pathology were all taken in the first two years of medical school. The experience and training I received as a medical technologist could be found directly in a lot of the course material that we had. In fact, my training allowed me to do some in laboratory tutoring of some of my other fellow students especially in the microanatomy course and the pathology course in which we were learning to read bone marrows and learning the cell lines in both the neutrophil and the red cell lines. I also assisted in the laboratory during the microbiology portion of our microbiology course.

I feel that a medical technologist who is desiring to advance their experience and degree and is considering medical school application could certainly benefit from training as a medical technologist and certification as an MTASCP.

Randall Hunt, M.D

Newport, AR