Inside Laboratory Medicine

There are a quarter million clinical laboratories in the United States alone but the techs working in those labs are seldom seen and their work is not recognized. This was particularly true during the Covid epidemic since it was those workers who ran the thousands upon thousands of Covid tests, exposed as they were to infection and working many hours of overtime so that patients could have accurate and timely results. Some of those techs speak in these pages about what it was like for them during Covid and about what it is like to work in the clinical lab, learning ever changing technology, staffing three shifts, weekends and holidays, and managing childcare and family life around this demanding job. This book chronicles the unseen work of laboratory technicians, technologists, and aides through the author's experience working in a clinical lab for more than 40 years, a time that saw astounding changes in lab technology, methodology, and testing. Most importantly, this book provides the human story of patients, diseases, and conditions diagnosed and monitored through lab work.