Providing critical test results during COVID-19
“Laboratory medicine at its core is serving the public good,” says Prof. Lauren Brooks
Lauren Brooks, Ph.D., Nazareth assistant professor in clinical laboratory sciences, is among the critical medical laboratory technologists testing for COVID-19 at University of Rochester Medical Center.
Nazareth Prof. Lauren Brooks, Ph.D., at work as a medical laboratory technologist at University of Rochester Medical Center clinical labs (photo taken 2019)
How does it feel to be doing this (always important) work during this public health emergency?
I am awed by my fellow colleagues in the health professions. The selflessness and dedication they have to treating, testing, and diagnosing patients during this public health emergency is inspiring. Personally, I feel it is my duty to take part in helping in what ways I can. I love working in the laboratory, and it gives me great satisfaction knowing that my work provides results that will guide the treatment of patients. I also love teaching at Nazareth College and take pride in the fact that every student who graduates from our clinical laboratory sciences (CLS) program is someone I would be happy to have working beside me in the laboratory during this crisis.
In what ways are you serving the public good?
Laboratory medicine at its core is serving the public good. Every step we take in collecting patient specimens, transporting, checking that tests are ordered correctly and the specimen is collected correctly, that the tests we are performing have been validated and controls are performed, and then reporting the patient result are all to ensure quality and timely information that is needed to diagnose and treat a patient. This is especially true with the current pandemic.
The laboratories are working tirelessly to differentiate patients based on if they are infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) — the name for the virus strain that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) — or influenza or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or any other pathogen that can cause similar initial symptoms. We are working to validate and create new tests to correctly identify people who have been infected or exposed to the virus in hopes of showing that there is immunity. The work we do is all devoted to serving the public good!
Is your work different because of the pandemic?
Yes. Extra precautions when working with possible COVID samples have been implemented including additional protective equipment. In addition to working in the laboratory to perform my normal duties, I am now on call to come in when additional help is needed for COVID sample testing. For years the laboratory has been chronically short-staffed (which is why we are excited to have our clinical laboratory sciences program at Nazareth), therefore when you do work in the laboratory you are often doing the work of more than one person. We always put our patients first and work as hard as possible to send laboratory results to physicians as quickly as possible.