Clinical laboratory science, or medical technology, attracts people who like science and enjoy problem solving. Laboratory professionals perform tests on blood, body fluids, tissues and cells that give physicians and other providers the information they need to diagnose and treat disease.
About 80 percent of laboratorians work in clinical settings including hospitals, clinics and reference laboratories, according to Rick Panning, vice president of laboratory services at Allina Hospitals and Clinics (www.allina.com).
Reference labs
Reference laboratories do specialized testing which hospitals and clinics are unable to perform internally, such as molecular testing, drug testing and testing for infectious diseases. Some reference laboratories also do employee drug testing.
Panning, who is past president of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (www.ascls.org), notes that reference labs seldom require employees to work nights or weekends - unlike hospital labs, which must be staffed around the clock.
Public health
State public health departments also employ laboratorians. Some work in the clinical lab testing patient specimens to find patterns of illness. This year, for example, laboratorians at the Minnesota Department of Health (http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/phl/index.html) helped trace the source of a salmonella outbreak to consumption of raw jalapeno peppers grown in Mexico.
Other laboratorians work in the environmental lab, testing for contaminants in samples of water, sludge, sediment, air, soil, wildlife, vegetation and hazardous waste.
