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- Missouri State Medical Association Publicly Recognizes Lab Testing Personnel
Praising laboratory staff for their dedication and hard work during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA) House of Delegates on April 17 unanimously approved a resolution recognizing lab testing personnel at the group’s annual meeting. The resolution was introduced by Missouri Society of Pathologists President Chakshu Gupta, MD, FCAP.
Clinical laboratory scientists and pathologists have performed testing and delivered results for millions of patients during the pandemic, “putting in long hours under stressful conditions, dealing with resource constraints and personal health concern from handling COVID-19 samples,” says the resolution. “The Missouri State Medical Association publicly recognize and express gratitude to clinical laboratory scientists for their untiring, dedicated and overall outstanding services and to clinical pathologists for their invaluable medical services to patients” during the pandemic.
During the meeting, 27 physicians submitted comments in support of the resolution, including Douglas Miller, MD, PhD, FCAP, representing the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
“I strongly support this resolution,” he wrote. “Pathologists and laboratory scientists and technologists stepped up, set up high-throughput COVID testing laboratories, and ran them sometimes without adequate PPE. They continued the essential laboratory diagnostic work (including autopsies) necessary to keep clinicians informed about their patients’ test results and so guided therapy.”
Natalie Webster, MD, FACP, added that laboratory personnel are often underrecognized, but that they have “been the backbone of COVID testing.”
Passage of the resolution came just before the start of Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, which takes place the last full week of April and is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.