National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week celebrates lab achievements

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  • 3rd Medical Support Squadron Laboratory Flight
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week will be celebrated this year from April 21-27. This is a time to honor the more than 280,000 medical laboratory professionals across the nation who perform and interpret laboratory tests that save lives and keep people healthy. 

"The 3rd Medical Group would like to take this time to salute the laboratory officers, pathologists, lab and histology technicians and administrative staff that form the team of lab professionals at the Air Force's Best Hospital for 2007," said Lt. Col. Donald Trummel, chief of the medical staff. 

Using state-of-the-art technology and instrumentation, the 3rd Medical Group laboratory staff serves more than 106,000 beneficiaries and performs more than 500,000 reportable tests each year. 

"These professionals help to prevent disease by detecting unknown health problems, aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of existing conditions and giving accurate, timely test results," Colonel Trummel added. The clinical laboratory is organized into specialized areas such as hematology, chemistry, microbiology, immunology, urinalysis and transfusion medicine. The clinical laboratory serves the needs of our patients and providers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

Anatomic pathology is where the staff performs diagnostic workups on tissue and body fluid samples. This is vital to the detection of various forms of cancer. One of our pathologists serves as the Associate Armed Forces Medical Examiner for the Alaska district, which has shared responsibility with the state medical examiner for forensic autopsies on active-duty members from all services. Anatomic pathology provides direct support to five Air Force and Army medical facilities and processes more than 11,000 specimens annually. 

The laboratory also plays an important role in medical readiness.
"Laboratory personnel assigned to the 3rd Medical Group during 2007 directed the airlift of all blood products in the Central Command during three consecutive Air Expeditionary Force rotations," said Capt. Scott Corey, Chief of Core Lab. 

More than 62,000 units of various blood products were airlifted to the area of responsibility medical treatment facilities which enabled 44,000 transfusions. In addition, the laboratory is the pilot unit for the Air Force's Frozen Blood Program. The procedures and equipment used to process frozen blood were validated by personnel assigned to the 3rd Medical Group laboratory. "As a result, the Air Force Medical Service has the capability to freeze and store large quantities of blood products for contingencies," said Maj. Kristine Fumia, Chief of Lab Services. 

Homeland defense is an important mission of the laboratory. The laboratory is a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Lab Response Network and has an additional capability as a Home Station Medical Response Laboratory Response Team. The team uses state-of-the-art DNA amplification to identify bacterial or viral agents. Toxins like ricin are identified by other methods. 

Physicians rely heavily on lab tests to make diagnoses, thus laboratory professionals are critical components of the health care system. Results of laboratory tests often help our providers complete the puzzle which enable them to identify the presence of disease in its earliest stages, when the possibilities of a cure are greatest and when treatment is least costly. Col. Billy Cecil, 3rd Medical Group deputy commander, salutes the professionals serving in our laboratory with a loud "Arctic Medics ... One Team One Fight!"