About OSMT: Learn About Laboratory Professionals

Learn About Laboratory Professionals

They say that life is found in the small things


Microscopes and microbes, computers and chromosomes ? these are some of the things that Medical Laboratory Technologists (MLTs) work with behind-the-scenes and on the front lines of patient health.

Today?s medicine would be impossible without the tests performed in the clinical laboratory by MLTs.  As vital partners in the health care of all Canadians, MLTs carry out many advanced tests on blood, body fluids and tissues ? providing data that doctors need to make clinical decisions about patient treatments.  It is estimated that laboratory results generate up to 85% of the medical information required to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease.

MLTs are the 3rd largest group of health care workers in the world, and the 4th largest group of health care professionals in Ontario. Turn on the television or read the newspaper and you?ll hear some reference to the things MLTs deal with 24 hours a day.

Medical Laboratory Technologists serve in hospital, private, public health, and blood transfusion labs in both urban and rural centres. While some postings require a command of all disciplines, other MLTs take on the role of specialists in their field.  MLTs also work in industry research and development, education, management, or evolutionary specialties such molecular genetics.

These are some of the specializations or disciplines in which MLTs work:
  • Laboratory Information Management: Using laboratory data to improve health care outcomes.
  • Patient Relations: At the bedside, with patients, performing venipuncture and laboratory tests.
  • Clinical Chemistry: The measurement of chemical components of blood and body fluids including hormones and drugs.
  • Clinical Genetics: The study of chromosomes, DNA and RNA from cells of body fluids and tissues to diagnose genetic diseases and cancer.
  • Clinical Microbiology: The study of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites which invade the body.
  • Diagnostic Cytology: the study of cells for the detection of cancer.
  • Electron Microscopy: Highly magnified electron images of cells are prepared in order to capture details ordinary microscopes cannot detect.
  • Hematology: The study of diseases in blood cells and the clotting mechanisms of the blood.
  • Histotechnology: The preparation of tissue samples for microscopic analysis such as tumor samples removed during an operation for breast, lung, or prostate cancer.
  • Immunology: The study of the body?s defense mechanisms against disease.
  • Transfusion Science: The determination of blood types and cross-matching for transfusion.