An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : Media : News : News Article View
NEWS | April 20, 2021

National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week

By Senior Airman Adriana Barrientos 673 Air Base Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, April 18 to 24, is a time to celebrate more than 280,000 medical laboratory professionals across the nation who perform and interpret laboratory tests that save lives and keep people healthy.

Medical laboratory professionals, pathologists, and technicians at JBER play a vital role in every aspect of health care. They are the service members that work behind the scenes to keep personnel healthy.

“The laboratory is responsible for performing analysis on body fluids to help diagnose diseases in patients. The analysis of blood, urine and other specimens are invaluable for medical providers to treat and provide care to patients,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Daniel Roma, the laboratory quality assurance coordinator from the 673d Medical Support Squadron laboratory flight. “During the last year, the medical laboratory has seen a huge surge in work volume because we perform COVID-19 testing.”

Doctors rely heavily on lab tests to make diagnoses. Thus, laboratory professionals are critical components of the health care system. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of medical lab techs and other professionals.

“The JBER lab performs and reports COVID-19 testing, which was critical to the wing commander’s decisions on JBER’s response to the 2020 pandemic. These testing capabilities have also allowed exercises for both the Air Force and Army to continue in order to fulfill mission ready tasks,” said U.S. Air Force Captain Karla Workman, chief of transfusion services, from the 673d MSS laboratory flight.

Using state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation, laboratory professionals help to prevent disease by detecting unknown health problems and aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of existing conditions by giving accurate, timely test results.

“The lab doesn’t just draw blood. Laboratory professionals are highly skilled and use sophisticated biomedical analyzers to generate critical, important results that identify and treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes, blood clotting disorders to name a few,” said Workman. “ Lab techs rarely sit down, we are always on our feet processing and analyzing tests.”

Results of laboratory tests often identify disease in its earliest stages, when the possibilities of a cure are greatest and when treatment is least costly. Likewise, lab professionals fight diseases every day with reliable diagnosis and prevention. National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week takes place the last full week each April, celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.
CONNECT WITH USINDOPACOM
Facebook

Like Us
X
363,185
Follow Us

ENGAGE & CONNECT MORE WITH PACOM

                                                 

IN THE USINDOPACOM NEWS
The Pentagon Transfers Authority to the Navy to Ensure the Safe Closure of Red Hill
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 28, 2024 - The Department of Defense announced today that the Joint Task Force-Red Hill has completed its defueling mission at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Hawai’i and shifted command and control of the facility to the...

U.S. Marines, Sailors arrive in Darwin for 13th iteration of MRF-D
U.S. Marine Corps Col. Brian Mulvihill, right, the commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 24.3, shakes hands with Royal Australian Navy Capt. Mitchell Livingstone, the commanding officer of Headquarters Northern Command at Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin, NT, Australia, March 24, 2024. MRF-D 24.3 is part of an annual six-month rotational deployment to enhance interoperability with the Australian Defence Force and Allies and partners and provide a forward-postured crisis response force in the Indo-Pacific. Mulvihill is a native of New York. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Cristian L. Bestul)
March 28, 2024 - A new group of Marines and Sailors arrived in the Northern Territory to begin the 13th annual iteration of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin...

Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Call with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr.
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 27, 2024 - Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following readout...

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Lindsey Ford Concludes Visit to Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 27, 2024 - Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Martin Meiners provided the following readout...

DIU Partners With AUKUS Pillar II for International Prize Challenge
Graphic intended for use as a placeholder for Statements and Press Releases without accompanying imagery.
March 26, 2024 - The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is launching the first trilateral prize challenge through AUKUS Pillar II— a defense and security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (U.S.)— to...