Innovative certificate program fills laboratory management gaps in residency training

Chicago, March 21, 2013—Pathologists, laboratory professionals, and residents ambitious to move up the career ladder have very few options for formal education programs to enhance laboratory management skills as their careers progress. Many learn from colleagues to develop budgets, measure laboratory productivity, and manage operations, staff, and existing laboratory procedures and protocols.

The up-from-the-bootstraps approach to learning laboratory management, however, is changing. On March 21, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) and the American Pathology Foundation (APF) will introduce a collaborative initiative known as Laboratory Management University (LMU). LMU seeks to address a vital need. The future of pathology and laboratory medicine rests upon the backbone of knowledgeable laboratory leaders who are trained in business practices.

“LMU is proving to be a wonderful opportunity for APF and ASCP to leverage their respective, complementary strengths into the design of a learning tool that should become a marquee example of quality leadership education for pathologists, laboratory professionals, and pathology practice managers,” said Chair of LMU Working Group Ronald L. Weiss, MD, MBA, FASCP, a Past President of APF. “LMU is leveraging APF’s practice management subject-matter expertise with the proven strength of the ASCP in designing and delivering premier educational programming.”

LMU is designed for pathologists, laboratory professionals, and pathology residents. Courses will be offered in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. LMU will kick off with seven courses in the spring. Upon completion of the program, participants will receive a Certificate of Laboratory Management in six core competency areas: Leadership, Personnel Management, Operations, Financial Management, Informatics, and Compliance. All 25 courses are offered for a flat fee, with a special, introductory price of $399.

“Lab Management University is unique because it’s taught by a who’s who of faculty who are highly experienced in managing medical laboratories nationwide,” said Dr. E. Blair Holladay, ASCP Executive Vice President. “The demand for highly-trained pathologists and laboratory professionals to lead medical laboratories is great.

“Practitioners need to have an overview of what management is all about. What do good communication and interpersonal skills consist of? What is personnel management and how do you motivate people? How do you manage the operations of a system?”

The curriculum grew out of research conducted by APF and ASCP about the gaps in training that exist in laboratory management leadership among current pathology residents. The two organizations conducted extensive research and held conversations with pathology residency program directors nationwide and found that new pathologists lacked basic management skills.

The residency training programs themselves lacked the tools to teach laboratory management effectively, which is a critical issue, according to laboratory directors recruited as LMU faculty.

“No matter what size laboratory you’re involved in, many pathologists and laboratory professionals are likely to be involved with the business side of laboratories,” said Jeff Warren, MD, FASCP, an LMU faculty member and Director of Clinical Pathology Laboratories at the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Mich.