Program Description:
The DCLS is an advanced professional doctorate designed for practicing CLSs who wish to further their level of clinical expertise and to develop leadership and management skills. The purpose of the program is the development of clinical laboratory sciences graduates who function as practitioners, community leaders, educators, and scholars in the profession of clinical laboratory science and the discipline of clinical laboratory science. Graduates of the program will generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge to enhance the understanding of laboratory assessment of health and disease.

Mission Statement:
The mission of the University of Texas Medical Branch Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science is to prepare advanced practice clinical laboratory practitioners who will increase efficiency, facilitate patient management outcomes, and improve timely access to accurate and appropriate laboratory information by participating directly in patient care decisions, monitoring laboratory utilization, and conducting research on the diagnostic process.


Objectives:
A graduate of the UTMB DCLS program will be able to

• Provide patient-centered, customized consultation services on appropriate test selection and interpretation for the purpose of clinical decision making among the interprofessional health care team and for the patient.
• Monitor laboratory data, test utilization, and diagnostic testing processes in individual patients and populations using informatics and analytics to reduce diagnostic errors, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.
• Conduct research and apply evidence to demonstrate clinical utility of laboratory tests and algorithms and to improve the quality, efficiency, and safety of the overall diagnostic testing process.
• Educate health care providers, patients, their families, and the general public about the indications, best evidence, patient preparation, and interpretation of clinical laboratory testing, including home self-testing.
• Direct laboratory operations to comply with all state and federal laws and regulations, as well as guidelines determined by professional boards of licensure, and certification/accreditation agencies
• Participate in public and private health policy decision making at all organization and government levels using best evidence.

For more information on the DCLS program please visit the website at https://shp.utmb.edu/ClinicalLaboratorySciences/DCLSprogram.asp#Masters1

We will be holding our Summer Study Session and TACLS CLEC on Saturday, September 10th tentatively scheduled to begin at 9AM.  The meeting will be held at Texas State University in the College of Health Professions building (room to be announced) in San Marcos, Texas. Driving directions may be found here: https://www.health.txstate.edu/cls/about/location.html

Please visit the ASCLS Member Community (you must be an ASCLS Member) website for past, present, and future information regarding our profession, including past TACLS meetings agendas and minutes.

With Medical Laboratory Professionals Week upon us (April 24 – 30, 2016), I would like to share how we (and you) can continue to not only get a peek behind the curtain of our profession but to help us reveal to everyone that we are the profession that saves lives every day.  First and foremost, our profession is at a critical crossroads of employee shortages. In fact, we are probably facing far more shortages than most other healthcare careers (e.g. nurses) due to a number of factors. Employment of healthcare occupations is projected to grow 19 percent from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2.3 million new jobs. This growth is expected due to an aging population and because federal health insurance reform should increase the numbers of individuals who have access to health insurance.1 No surprise, right? Well, the difference for our profession is that we have long been hidden in the eyes of junior high and high school advisors and counselors as a college major or career path. This upstream problem of non-recognition with little advising at the pre-college level, coupled with the downstream problem of not being “seen” by patients and family members has an antagonistic (downward spiral) effect for growing our professional numbers. I, and many others, believe this is one of the most serious issues facing our profession. See the complete article at: https://www.labtestingmatters.org/the-hidden-profession-that-saves-lives-every-day-medical-laboratory-science/

Mary Ann McLane, professor of medical laboratory sciences at the University of Delaware, is serving as an expert education consultant for the “eClinic: An Innovative Technology for Clinical Laboratory Sciences Education” grant project.

The project will develop 30 student learning modules featuring computer-based medical laboratory science information along with high-quality 3-D animated simulations and virtual laboratories for use in a classroom setting to study standard curricula, McLane said.

“The modules will provide access to clinical instrumentation and critical thinking experiences expected of someone who is becoming a medical laboratory scientist,” McLane said. “For a variety of reasons, this equipment is beyond the resources of most college and university programs to provide.” 

Read more about this important contribution to our profession at https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2016/aug/eclinic-080515.html

Back in October of 2014, I posted a commentary on gaining some perspective on the Ebola crisis facing the world, and more specifically in the U.S. (see: https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/health/ebola-1-year-later/)

What lessons have we learned five months later? Over 10,000 people have died from the ongoing epidemic. It was a huge wake-up call for the U.S. healthcare system in regards to flawed government systems, managing a nation's perception of reality (science and best evidence) versus panic, as well as where do go from here.

Check out this CNN report at https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/14/health/ebola-1-year-later/ for a recent examination of what we have learned.

And, for a scientific view, check out this article in the New England Journal of Medicine: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1502918



Dr. Rodney E. Rohde
doc.rohde@gmail.com

The Senate Bill 1662 MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS REGISTRY ACT has been filed by Senator Lucio.  For more information on what the bill says, please visit https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB1662/2015.  It's time to get the word out!

The authors of this article have been lobbying the Texas Legislature to pass bills that would require medical laboratory professionals to be licensed to work in the state. Dr. Rodney E. Rohde is Professor and Chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science program at Texas State University and incoming President of the Texas Association for Clinical Laboratory Science (TACLS). David Falleur is Associate Professor at Texas State and serves on the TACLS Government Affairs Committee, which has started a petition for licensure in Texas. Joanna R. Ellis is Clinical Assistant Professor at Texas State University and outgoing President of TACLS.

Here, they write about the issue and why they think licensure should be mandatory.


When your doctor orders lab tests, are they performed and analyzed by licensed medical laboratorians? If you live in the United States, chances are the answer is no. Medical laboratory scientists (MLS) and medical laboratory technicians (MLT) are licensed in just 12 states.

Just 12 states in the US license medical laboratorians: California, Hawaii, Florida, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Louisiana, Nevada, West Virginia, Montana and Georgia). Puerto Rico also has licensure. (Source: American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science – ASCLS; image by Joanna Ellis)State governments grant licenses in hundreds of other professions. In 2003, the Council of State Governments estimated that more than 800 occupations were licensed in one or more states. Among the healthcare occupations and professions licensed by states are physicians, physician assistants, dentists, nurses, midwives, respiratory care professionals, radiologic technicians, chiropractors, physical therapists, and pharmacists. Among the non-healthcare related occupations licensed by the states are plumbers, painters, general contractors, school bus drivers, barbers, bartenders, dogcatchers, cosmetologists, septic system installers and insurance agents.MLS and MLT professionals provide up to 70 percent of objective patient information to physicians so they can provide an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan, according to a 2002 study in Clinical Leadership and Management Review titled "The Value of the Laboratory Professional in the Continuum of Care."

Patient history along with physical signs and symptoms are vital, but most diagnoses need confirmation that only laboratory tests can provide. The laboratory professionals also contribute to wellness testing, guiding treatment and monitoring patient progress. It is not an overstatement to say that our professionals provide critical lifesaving information many times over the course of a work day: for example, complex testing to cross-match your blood for emergency surgery, to identify a genetic abnormality of a newborn, or to assist in the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis and cancers like Hodgkin’s disease.

Most people believe that there doctor perform these tests like we see on TV shows like House or Grey’s Anatomy. In fact, you would probably not want your personal physician to do your lab tests because the specialized skills required are not an integral part of the medical school curriculum. Formal coursework training in medical laboratory testing comprises a small portion of the curriculum for most health care professionals. However, for MLS and MLT students, medical laboratory theory for all 1,000+ available lab tests, sources of interference, and connections between test results and diagnoses is the main focus of their studies.

And yet, our profession is not licensed in most states!

For the full article, please click the following link:  The Case for Licensure

Are you interested in being a leader, then please consider running for Student Forum at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX!  There are 5 positions available and each position requires a 1 year commitment.  The board consists of 2 executive positions, Student Forum Chair and Student Forum Vice Chair as well as 3 (max) Student Forum Board Members. 

A candidate must be a student member of ASCLS and must have been enrolled in a program/major in the clinical laboratory sciences (MLS or MLT) within that academic year. A description of each officer position is available by clicking on Student Forum Handbook at https://tacls.org/student-forum.html. 

This year’s Student Forum elections will be held on Thursday, April 9th at 12:30 at the Omni Hotel during the student lunch.   If you are interested in running, please fill out the attached application and return to me by Tuesday, March 31st. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at e.m.edmunds@gmail.com. 

APRIL 8-11, 2015 OMNI WESTSIDE HOUSTON, TX

The 2015 TACLS Annual Meeting program is shaping up to be an interesting one. For the first time, we will have a dedicated track to molecular thanks to Dr. Peter Hu of MD Anderson SHP's Molecular Genetic and Diagnostic Genetics programs, we will also have several discussions on the hot topic of Ebola including a clinical issues panel discussion and a presentation on the genomic surveillance and Ebola origin and transmission of the 2014 outbreak, as well as opportunities for continuing education in Chemistry, Hematology Immunohematology and Microbiology. 

Students will have an opportunity to participate in Student Bowl and Student Forum luncheon. 

There will be a reception Thursday evening to raise money for a local charity and TACLS student scholarship fund, allow for networking and visiting colleagues from around the state.

We have scored as Opening Keynote, Dr. Michael Laposata MD, PhD, Chair of Pathology from UTMB and the ASCLS President, Susie Zanto as closing keynote to wrap the meeting. Ms. Zanto will also co-present a presentation on the public health laboratory system along with our very own TACLS President-Elect, Dr. Rodney Rohde. 

A tentative schedule will be available by the end of December on the TACLS website. You may also link directly to the hotel to reserve your room. Registration will open after the first of the year. So, make sure you check out the website.

tacls.org/annual-meeting

If you have questions, please email annualmeeting@tacls.org.

I look forward to seeing you in Houston,

Brandy Greenhill, DrPH, MLS(ASCP)

TACLS Annual Meeting Committee Chair

A Q&A with ASCLS Student Travel Grant Recipients


For viability of a professional organization, it is important to involve students and retain them as members within the organization. The following questions were posed to two ASCLS Student Travel Grant Recipients, Kimaria Baker and Jazmen Myers, regarding their involvement in a professional organization. 

ASCLS: How did you become involved in a professional organization?

Kimaria: I first became aware of the ASCLS professional organization through my Program Director at my school.  It was mandatory to join as a student and I very quickly became acquainted with how the organization works.  It is very supportive of students and helps students become young professionals.  It also has a National Student Forum where students can collaborate and voice their ideas and opinions.

Jazmen: When I was accepted into the Texas State University clinical lab science program, I was encouraged to join the Society of Clinical Laboratory Science at Texas State University. Upon joining our university society we were then informed about ASCLS, its benefits, and how to join. We were also told about ASCP, their involvement in our certification, and how to join their organization as well. I joined ASCLS and ASCP, and have been a member of both for over a year now.

For the full article, please click the following link. 
https://laboratory-manager.advanceweb.com/Columns/Association-News/The-Importance-of-Joining-a-Professional-Organization.aspx