We’ve all seen TV shows and movies with sleek, futuristic laboratories, where forensic investigators solve crimes by looking into microscopes and courageous scientists search for cures to diseases by swirling mysterious liquids in flasks. In these labs, all questions get answered just before the credits roll. But the reality of a medical lab is much different than what we see in popular media.

If you’ve ever wondered what “the lab” is really like and what the healthcare professionals inside them are working on, you’re in the right place. We’ve asked medical lab workers to provide a sneak peek inside what really goes on in a medical lab.

What’s it like inside a medical lab?

在实验室的想法可能带来old tropes about mad scientists heating brightly colored mystery concoctions in beakers, the reality is much more practical. D’Vaughn House, a clinical research coordinator at theUniversity of Cincinnati Infection Diseases Division说，虽然所有医疗实验室都不同，但有一些共同的功能。

“When you enter, you’ll see containers full of supplies, like color-coded draw tubes, butterfly needles and tourniquets,” House explains.

Of course, entering a medical lab isn’t typically an option for most.

“Medical labs can feel like a fortress because before you enter them, you must be credentialed in some way either through education or experience,” House says.

Once inside the lab, you’ll often see—and may be overwhelmed by—the number of supplies.

“Testing agents, shipping boxes and biohazard labels lining the shelves,” House says. “Filing cabinets wrapped around the entire room.” House says medical labs often feel cluttered because staff need all the relevant supplies to be easily accessible while they work.

“Staff must be diligent about organization and cleanliness because it’s easy to feel like the walls are closing in on you,” House says.

Personal protective equipment (PPE)such as gloves, masks and goggles are generally required in medical labs. Standard lab equipment like microscopes, pipettes, hotplates, lab glassware, chemistry analyzers, incubators, testing kit supplies, centrifuges and autoclaves are also common. Freezers and refrigerators are also often used to store samples at specific temperatures.

作为electronic health records (EHR)are now the norm in healthcare, medical labs generally have computers where staff can access and update patient information with test results. Knowledge ofEPIC, an electronic health record software system used at many major hospitals, is often required.

Zhe Song, a lab supply manager at阿布who has worked with labs in academia and hospitals, compares medical labs to a place all of us can imagine.

“To make it simple to understand, it’s like a kitchen,” Song says. “You get ingredients, labwares and you cook stuff. But the procedures are much more complicated and can take a much longer time.”

What happens in a medical lab?

Unlike many kitchens, the medical lab generally has a lower noise level—there’s no head chef screaming about a missed ticket.

“医疗实验室很安静，因为它们的操作就像装配线一样，”House说。“你需要专注于你在做什么。”

据宋：“在医院的歌曲中，各种工作实验室行为几乎是无限的，医疗实验室支持像常见疾病的血液检测等东西，婴儿筛查苯丙酮尿和肿瘤病理学检查。”

作为an example, House walks through what a common medical lab procedure could look like: an HIV test.

“Staff will need to know how to draw blood and use a centrifuge to separate the plasma, which is used for testing from the rest of the blood,” House says. “Then a courier will send the specimen to a central facility where technicians will need to know how to use anAll Scriptsdatabase andARCHITECT HIV Ag/Ab testing machine。”

In order to keep compliant with lab standards, House is also required to keep current on a variety of trainings.

“我的实验室经理要求定期更新我的血型病原体和危险通信培训。”

Medical labs: Crucial players in modern healthcare

“宋说，这很难想象一个没有医疗实验室的世界，”宋说，​​引用了全球测试供应短缺对Covid-19大流行的不利影响。房子无法想象没有医疗实验室的工作的医疗保健。

“Our society is built on the collective acceptance of scientific processes,” House explains. “In the health care system, doctors typically cannot diagnose a major illness without testing because insurance companies or governments use medical labs to know how to make fact-based decisions. At all levels of health, medical labs serve as the most reliable fact-checking mechanism. Because information can travel instantaneously, demand for fact checking is ever increasing.”

Increasingly, House adds, tasks associated with medical labs are becoming automated. “Artificial intelligence is taking over labs these days, so you will always encounter complex databases and machines,” House says.

But machines can only do so much—the people working with them will always have to take the lead. Finding critical answers that impact people’s health requires medical lab professionals to be detail-oriented, analytical and patient.

“It’s hard shaking that feeling of perfectionism,” House says. “Major decisions related to people’s long-term health and wellbeing squarely rest on the information available to doctors and insurance companies.”

实验室程序的每一步都很重要，但不仅仅是因为有什么股份。那些占据医疗实验室的人需要精确他们的行为。

“Because the nature of labs is fact finding, the moment you break lab protocol, you open yourself up to mistakes and waste,” House says. “No one can train you to be ready for everything that could go wrong in a lab, so you must possess coping skills that allow you to learn from your mistakes.”

Getting started as a medical lab professional

If you’re interested in working in a medical lab, one common entry point for working in a lab is by becoming a medical lab technician. The医学实验室技术人员计划at Rasmussen University offers an Associate’s degree that prepares students for the医学实验室技术人员（ASCP）认证考试。Medical labs that conduct research on diseases and treatment protocols also often employ staff with Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral degrees—there’s a wide range of academic backgrounds to be found in most labs.

认为你是一个很好的适合这个幕后的医疗保健工作吗？如果您正在寻找直接影响人们的健康科学工作，医疗实验室职业可能是一个很好的开始。要了解有关医疗实验室技术人员的角色的更多详细信息，请查看我们的文章“What Does a Medical Lab Technician Do? A Closer Look.”