Alumnae honored
Medical laboratory sciences alumnae recognized for publication
10:59 a.m., Aug. 19, 2015--Two University of Delaware alumnae from the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences Class of 2013 have received a Distinguished Author Award from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) for a publication they authored as undergraduate students.
As seniors, Michelle Francis and Angelica Montes completed a College of Health Sciences First Step research project focused on the health system’s handling of critical laboratory results.
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Under the mentorship of Anna Ciulla, associate professor of medical laboratory sciences, the students designed and implemented a survey questionnaire, asking staff and providers at primary care offices about their procedures for receiving and responding to critical lab results. They analyzed the 70 completed responses, and compiled their findings in an article titled “Improving the Delivery of Patient Critical Laboratory Results to Physicians,” which appeared in Clinical Laboratory Science, an ASCLS journal.
This summer, the students and Ciulla were honored with the Distinguished Author Award for their article. The award is given each year to the authors of three publications chosen from all submissions to Clinical Laboratory Science.
In July, Mary Ann McLane, professor of medical laboratory sciences, accepted the award on their behalf at the annual ASCLS conference.
“This award recognizes work that will have the greatest potential for impact on patient care," McLane said. "It is a great honor for any established researcher, so we are very proud to have two of our undergraduate students recognized.”
In their research, Francis and Montes found that the majority of practices surveyed did not have a standard operating procedure for receiving and responding to critical results.
Francis explained, “We learned that each practice handles the process differently. Sometimes, a receptionist is tasked with receiving the lab results and making sure they get to a provider for timely response. Other times it could be a nurse, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, medical assistant or physician who first receives the results. Depending on the lab and the primary care office, results could come in via fax, telephone call or electronic message.”
The students focused on how these factors affect the timeliness of provider review of the results, and timeliness of communicating the results and associated recommendations to patients.
“What was interesting about our project was that we were looking at the entire system," Montes said. "Often times, we just consider one fragment at a time -- the lab, the hospital, the primary care office. Understanding how information flows from one site to another is important so that we can work on closing gaps in the system.”
The impact of the project will continue to expand this academic year. McLane will mentor a group of honors medical laboratory sciences students who will continue the work that Montes and Francis began. The students will work with interested primary care offices identified through the survey on developing standardized operating procedure for receiving and responding to critical laboratory results.
Article by Sarah LaFave