11:21 a.m., Nov. 20, 2008----Mary Ann McLane, professor in the departments of medical technology and biological sciences at the University of Delaware, has been chosen president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS). The professional society represents more than 10,000 clinical lab professionals in the United States.

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McLane will be the president-elect of ASCLS for 2008-2009 and then automatically become president in 2009-2010. This is the first time in the society's history that someone from Delaware has reached this level.

Clinical laboratory professionals design, perform, and interpret the results of the billions of clinical lab tests conducted in the U.S. each year. In Delaware alone, more than five million tests are conducted annually.

A clinical lab professional herself for 32 years, McLane already has plans for her platform when she assumes the presidency a year from now: “Provide the face.”

“The general public, as well as our health care colleagues, has the misconception that patient specimens go into a black box and results come out,” McLane says. “No one really knows who we are because interactions with people in our profession are very limited -- even for doctors and nurses, contact with clinical lab professionals is usually limited to phone contact when there is a problem with a test.”

McLane emphasizes the importance of lab tests in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. “After Hurricane Katrina,” she says, “doctors and nurses were reduced to performing first aid because they didn't have any test results to guide them in making diagnoses and developing treatment plans.”

According to McLane, there is an acute shortage of clinical lab professionals, which is worsening as the baby boom generation ages. “We need good people in the profession,” she says, “but it's difficult to get middle- and high-school kids to think about a career in a field when they've never seen anyone actually working in it.”

McLane would also like to see clinical lab professionals become part of the medical team that handles patient care in hospitals. “There's generally a doctor, a nurse, and a pharmacist doing daily rounds,” she says, “but no one from the clinical laboratory on those rounds to provide immediate expert input on the results of lab tests.”

A national movement is underway to establish a clinical professional doctorate in clinical laboratory science, which McLane sees as another step in the direction of elevating the professionalism of the field. “Four universities in the U.S. are developing programs,” she says, “and the University of Delaware has the capability to be among the first to produce this level of practitioner. We just need more faculty.”

Licensure is another issue about which McLane is passionate. “Only 14 states -- and Delaware is not one of them -- require clinical lab professionals to be licensed,” she says. “You need a license to cut hair and bury bodies but not to interpret the results of tests that contribute to disease diagnosis and treatment.”

“All of these issues affect and feed on each other with the “provide the face” theme,” McLane adds. “I'm looking forward to having a voice on the national level to address them.”

McLane joined the University of Delaware faculty in 1996. She holds a master's degree in medical technology education and a Ph.D. in physiology, both from Temple University. Her specialty is clinical chemistry, and her research focuses on melanoma metastasis.

Article by Diane Kukich
Photo by Kathy Atkinson