Redwood Times

National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, April 20-26, is a time to honor the more than 280,000 medical laboratory professionals across the nation who perform and interpret laboratory tests that save lives and keep people healthy. Pathologists, Clinical Laboratory Scientists and Phlebotomists are among the many unsung and forgotten heroes of healthcare.

Doctors rely heavily on lab tests to make diagnoses, thus laboratory professionals are critical components of the health care system. Results of laboratory tests often identify the presence of disease in its earliest stages, when the possibilities of a cure are greatest and when treatment is least costly.

Almost everyone has had a laboratory test, yet most people are unaware that highly trained and highly educated professionals behind the scenes who perform the tests and play a major role in saving lives.

Laboratory professionals assist in the prevention of disease by detecting unknown health problems and aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of existing conditions by giving accurate, timely test results. Lab test comprise 70 percent of a patients medical record and are vital to the diagnosis and treatment of illness and disease.

President

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George W. Bush said: “Medical laboratory professionals are meeting the needs of the sick and injured and bringing hope to patients and their loved ones. National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week is an opportunity to recognize the contributions of the dedicated men and women whose work helps detect and prevent disease, monitor treatment and save countless lives.” They are the behind-the-scenes backbone of medicine.

Join us in congratulating the laboratory staff at all of hospitals in Humboldt County for their hard work and dedication to improving the health and well being of their communities.