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A Mayo Clinic podcast for laboratory professionals, physicians, and students, hosted by Justin Kreuter, M.D., assistant professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at Mayo Clinic, featuring educational topics and insightful takeaways to apply in your practice.
- This is Lab Medicine
Rounds, a curated podcast
for physicians, laboratory
professionals and students.
I'm your host, Justin Kreuter,
a transfusion medicine pathologist
and assistant professor
of Laboratory Medicine
and Pathology at Mayo Clinic.
This episode, we're really kind
of continuing this celebration
of celebrating the laboratory.
And so I wonder if we
could kind of get into this
by kicking off with, you
know, from your perspective,
why is it important to
highlight the presence
of the laboratory in
current medical practice?
Dr. Hsi: I mean, it's always a good
time to sort of remind people
that the laboratory, you
know, is, is there to provide,
you know, services for our patients.
I think the number bandied about
that, you know, 70% of all,
you know, medical information
comes from the laboratory.
And so, you know, we have a
major role in providing data,
actionable information to
our clinical colleagues
to make patient care
and treatment decisions.
And so with such an important
role, it doesn't help,
you know, hurt to get in front of people
and raise that awareness again, that we,
we are a part of the care team.
- I mean, when you say it's providing 70%
of the information,
that's pretty substantial,
but then also to talk about,
it's a reminder, I guess it's,
it's easy to kind of be always counted on
to be providing these
results in a timely fashion.
- Oh, certainly. And
I think, you know, I, well,
COVID was a huge example of
getting lab front and center,
and it certainly raised awareness.
And at other institutions I've
been, you know, the awareness
that, you know, at some point in time,
the laboratory touches
pretty much every single
patient in their journey.
And there's not a lot of specialties
that can say that, right?
So one of my colleagues
here says, you know,
we are involved in healthcare
from cradle to grave,
and that actually is to some degree true.
- And so for, for the listener
who maybe hasn't thought about the role
of the laboratory in their practice,
what would be your advice
for how to kind of approach
building that bridge maybe more
explicitly in their practice?
I think maybe some
clinician listeners may not
understand where to start.
- Yeah. I would say, you know,
please reach out, contact us.
We don't bite.
We love, in fact,
I'm part of our, you know,
pathologists oftentimes are introverted
and, you know, we need to be brought up,
but we are always happy to consult
and, you know, lend our expertise.
You know, we become
integral parts of the care team.
I think that's one area
that we, as a field,
our next big push is
to become a little more
integrated and front
and center in the care team.
You know, having pathologists get out
and speak to patients is another avenue
that is really satisfying
because patients are also
curious about laboratory testing
and their particular results.
And so that's another, you know, way
that pathologists may not
have not traditionally been
involved in part of the care team.
But that's certainly was a very
fulfilling exercise for me.
Other pathologists actually
are involved with that.
Transfusion medicine
people deal with, you know,
more directly with patients
and things like that.
So I think, you know, as
we as a field develop,
you know, our next frontier is really
to get a little more front
and center in the care teams.
- Where is the laboratory headed?
If you could elaborate a little bit for us
- As, as we move forward in information.
'cause I think at the end of the day, yes,
we're doing all these
testing, our laboratories are
generating, like we said,
you know, a large chunk
of the information being
used to treat patients.
But at the end of the day,
it's information, right?
And so how do we leverage
that information in new ways
to add to, you know, the,
the diagnostic decisions?
- What do you think is, might
be our biggest challenge
with that step forward into more of those
that clinic domain?
- Yeah. Well I think it's,
you know, part of it is,
you know, workforce
and kind of like keeping
people interested in
going into the field.
You and I both
know, it's getting harder
and harder to find people
that get into the field
because, you know, there's so
many things people could be doing
and how do we make sure that
people understand there's this
super interesting career path
that is contributing to health
of the population,
and you know, how do we keep
those people interested?
And then how do we continue
to develop the skill sets
that we need in terms of, you know,
information management
and computational pathology, which is kind
of the new buzzword, right?
And build those skill sets
into the training program so
that we can continue
to grow as a specialty.
I think those are things
that we will be trying
to figure out over the next
coming, you know, decade.
- You know, why is it important
from your perspective for us
to look at our past when
planning for our future?
Dr. Hanson: That's a great question.
I think that one of the
first things that comes
to mind is it's an
opportunity to re-look at
and validate what our principles are.
Too often we just keep
going down the path.
We're busy, you know, we do
today, you go to today's list
and you do today's list
and you worry about yesterday's
things you didn't get done.
And we don't take the
time to really sit back
and reflect on what's my vision?
What are my principles,
am I upholding those?
Are they still valid? Do
they still work for us?
How can I incorporate
them more into what we do?
And I think by looking
back, you can really go,
have I been consistent over time?
Have we been consistent over time
with why we do what we do?
And I think that's really
something we don't spend a lot
of time thinking about,
but that really should drive what we do.
It certainly should
drive our decision making
and our planning and our
prioritization of things.
- How do you see these aspects
that you're celebrating,
informing kind of the
future, you know, kind
of the future projections as
success in our, in our field?
- I think we really, we
need to move beyond some
of our historical approaches to things
and really kind of grab
that discipline of change
and really drive it in the laboratory
and challenge how we do things.
- How do we shift from service orientation
to really being colleagues, you
know, equals with our other,
you know, healthcare professionals.
That's really going to, one,
help us to be able to advocate
for best laboratory practice
to support the clinical practice,
but also certainly make
us more visible as well.
- We need to always think of
ourselves that we are every bit
as involved with and responsible for
and taking care of our patients.
And I think that's a,
that's an important mindset.
A lot of these things are the
mindsets I think that we need
to really work on as a, as a profession.
- What do you wish for the future
of laboratory medicine and pathology?
Jane Hermansen: I think that as we
as professionals become more
removed from the patient
bedside, we don't have that,
that insight into the patient.
We don't have the empathy of seeing what
that patient is going through.
So going forward, looking to
the future, I hope that we
as professionals never lose touch
with the reason we're
in laboratory medicine
in the first place.
To me, it really made all
the difference to have
that patient aspect and
it has really an informed
and truly created the
professional that I am today
because I did have that in
the trenches experience.
And without it, I don't
think that I'd be,
as effective as I am today.
So that's one piece - to not let
go of the the patient piece.
And if you have an opportunity
to be in a more generalist position
and then tie the picture
of the diagnostics back to
that patient, it actually is going
to help you feel like
you're adding more value.
My hope for the future of our industry
and our profession as laboratory
professionals, that we are able
to bring more people in,
advocate for the profession,
bring more people in to our programs so
that they can actually bring
that same joy to the work
that we do every day.
And then it's not just
about the profession,
it really comes down to
the fact that we are there
for the patients and the
work that we do helps provide
and improve great patient
care, improving the outcomes,
and they can't do it without laboratory
medicine and pathology.
- To all of our listeners,
thank you for joining us today.
We invite you to share your thoughts
and suggestions via email.
Please direct any suggestions
to MCLeducation@mayo.edu
and reference this podcast.
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We encourage you to continue
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