When a patient has blood drawn, the sample is then sent to the lab, and within the next few days, a physician will call and share their test results – a diagnosis or other insight to guide treatment. But what exactly happens in “the lab”? That’s where the medical laboratory scientists come into play.
Although they rarely interact with patients face-to-face, a medical laboratory scientist is an unsung hero who helps physicians determine patients’ conditions and treatment plans. Some of these scientists at Penn Medicine received their specialized training for board certification right at Pennsylvania Hospital’s (PAH) Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) program.
Detectives in Healthcare
Commonly referred to as detectives in healthcare, medical laboratory scientists collect evidence – patient samples, such as blood, tissue, and other substances – and investigate the specimen for clues to a health issue.
At PAH, the medical laboratory scientists, who work with a wide variety of departments, such as Hematology, Microbiology, Chemistry, and Blood Bank, begin their day by starting up high-tech instrumentation and running quality controls to ensure that the devices provide accurate measurements and reliable results for the more than 1.4 million tests PAH’s labs perform annually.
A medical laboratory scientist may identify that a blood sample is low on platelets – a common effect from chemotherapy – which may require a patient to have a platelet transfusion to reduce risk of hemorrhage. Or they may receive a sample with bacteria and perform a susceptibility test to determine which antibiotics would treat an infection. In short, whenever a health care provider says something needs to be “sent to the lab,” the medical laboratory scientists are the individuals examining that sample.
Ensuring that patients and physicians can rely on the best-trained medical laboratory scientists is the goal of the MLS program.
Students to Scientists
Alison Steinmiller
Formerly called the School of Medical Technology, the MLS program was created in 1946 with the mission to train aspiring scientists. While a medical laboratory scientist was an established career at the time, hospitals around the country were just beginning to develop their own training programs to expand the field.
At PAH, the program was approved by the American Medical Association to host 15 students; however, only one student enrolled in it that year. The following year, the program began to actively recruit students from local colleges and universities, which, in three years, boosted enrollment to 13 students and sparked the program’s launch of affiliation agreements.
The MLS program is partnered with 13 Pennsylvania colleges and universities, such as the University of the Sciences (now merging with Saint Joseph’s University), Penn State University, and West Chester University. Through the affiliation, students on track for a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences or chemistry can apply to participate in the 11-month program for credit in their senior year. The students participate in lectures and hands-on lab rotations, not just at PAH, but also at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Blood Bank, and Penn Medicine Radnor.
Alison Steinmiller enrolled into the MLS program in her final year at the University of the Sciences, graduating from it in the 2021 cohort. However, she was familiar with the program long before college. Steinmiller followed in the footsteps of her mother, who graduated from the program in the 1990s and is now a lab technologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. “When I was heading into college and had to pick a career path, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to help others,” said Steinmiller. “It’s a good field if you’re interested in medicine, but maybe you’re too shy for direct patient interactions.”
Al Jankaitis
Al Jankaitis, a 1981 graduate, completed the program as a senior at Penn State University. Similarly, he remembers hearing about the MLS profession through his brother-in-law, who was enrolled in another MLS program at a different institution. Jankaitis recalls the program at PAH as an important time to connect with future colleagues who became friends.
He and his cohort stayed in townhouses a block away from PAH, which was included with tuition at the time. While Jankaitis’ class had lab rotations, and was able to work in those labs upon completion of the rotations, the cohort also worked with Phlebotomy during morning specimen collection rounds. “It was a mutually beneficial kind of setup. We were able to learn and gain experience while they had needed assistance with testing,” said Jankaitis. Outside of the lab, the students and staff would meet at the townhouses, fire up their grill, and have barbecue dinners together. “We also made life-long friends among our class and with the staff,” recalls Jankaitis. “I’ve gone to their weddings and children’s baptisms.”
After graduation and board certification, both Steinmiller and Jankaitis applied and accepted full-time positions at PAH — Steinmiller joining as a medical laboratory scientist in Hematology-Oncology and Jankaitis first joined as a bench technologist in Chemistry.
Today, Jankaitis serves as a lead application analyst for Penn Medicine’s Lab Information Services (LIS). He is responsible for assisting the technology side of lab operations, maintaining and updating the health system’s laboratory software to optimize processes for testing and to share documentation efficiently across the lab and hospital-wide network. Jankaitis also gives an introductory lecture for the MLS program, in which he meets with the new students and provides an overview of how all the labs and various other ancillary systems (Radiology, Pharmacy, etc.) interact with each other as part of the overall PennChart (EPIC) platform. He shares lessons he learned from his own time with the program as well.
“My instructors were old-school and never wanted instrumentation to be treated as the be-all, end-all mechanism for obtaining test results. You needed to understand the processes occurring, the chemical reactions, photometry, and how these results are able to be achieved,” said Jankaitis. “The principles still stand today.”
Model for Recruitment
It was thanks to a chance meeting at the time clock in the Farm Journal building just last year that the long-established MLS program may become a model for recruitment and retention of professionals in other roles. Marylou Osterman, Cancer Program coordinator and a member of PAH’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, got into a conversation with Steinmiller, her newly hired colleague, about Steinmiller’s positive experience with the MLS program.
“As part of the DEI workgroup, we promote professional development and career opportunities for incoming and current staff,” said Osterman. “The MLS program allows trainees to become familiar with their work environment and network within the hospital, which creates an easy transition into a full-time role. We’ve been discussing this successful structure and brainstorming how we can expand it to other areas at PAH.”
In addition, Jean Buchenhorst, MS, MLS, director of the MLS program, is considering expansion of the program’s affiliation agreements with colleges and universities and accommodation of larger class sizes. Currently, the program accepts 10 students each year in a dual-cohort system – half the class is enrolled from August to June, while the other half completes the program from January to December. However, for each slot, the program receives three applications.
Buchenhorst and the MLS team plan to modify the curriculum and class setup to allow more than 10 students to efficiently train through the program. They also hope to raise more awareness about the MLS field – often an unknown career path – through these additional affiliation agreements.
“I never would have heard about MLS if it weren’t for my brother-in-law. We want to publicize and promote this profession to students,” said Jankaitis. “It’s a very rewarding year of accelerated study and lab experience. All of my training and what I learned still helps me today, over 40 years later.”
Next Generation
This June, the 2022 MLS cohort will walk across the Zubrow auditorium stage at PAH and celebrate their completion of the nearly year-long program, accompanied by their fellow classmates, families, and friends. It will be the first fully in-person ceremony since 2019, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following graduation, the students will sign up to take their board certification exam at an external certification agency; 90 to 100 percent of PAH’s students pass each year.
“I’m so proud of our students who are always up for a challenge to learn and take on something new in the labs,” said Buchenhorst. “These students are exciting to work with and it’s gratifying to see them excel in their roles outside of the program.”