Press Release
Labs Are Vital™ Program Targets Science-Minded Students Through Facebook Social Media Network
Social media strategy addresses severe labor shortage in the clinical
laboratory profession
February 25, 2008
Abbott Park, Illinois (NYSE:
ABT)
Summary Facts:
-
Labs Are Vital™ launched a Facebook
group and student-focused Web site, www.LabScienceCareers.com, to
inform students about career opportunities in clinical lab sciences.
- As part of the Facebook social media initiative, high school and college
students can compete to win scholarships valued at up to $2,500 by submitting a
video, advertisement, or T-shirt design that encourages others to consider
careers in laboratory medicine.
- Labs Are Vital™ is a multi-pronged, multi-year education and awareness
program sponsored by Abbott that is designed to highlight the critical role
laboratory professionals play in healthcare and to address the issues facing
laboratories today.
- Recruiting the next generation of laboratory professionals is one of the
many goals of the Labs Are Vital program, due to the workforce shortage of
laboratory professionals in the field.
- Clinical laboratory professionals play a leading role in monitoring health,
diagnosing diseases, and assessing the treatment of patients.
- Visit www.LabScienceCareers.com for
complete contest details.
In an effort to attract young people to the clinical laboratory profession,
Labs Are Vital™, a program sponsored by Abbott, has tapped into
Facebook, a popular social networking Web site, to reach out to more than
four million students with an interest in life sciences.
Facebook is an online network that connects young people with friends and
other peers who work, study and live around them, and is being used as a tool
to educate high school and college students about career opportunities in the
clinical laboratory science profession. A Facebook page, sponsored by Labs Are
Vital, will enable interested, career-minded high school and college students
to meet clinical lab science students or recent graduates and learn about the
benefits and challenges of the profession from their peers. Recruitment is one
of many goals of the Labs Are Vital program. Others include improving the
visibility of the clinical lab and demonstrating the value of the lab to the
greater healthcare community. Abbott has been joined by many of the most
influential and professional organizations in the clinical lab, who share these
goals, including: CLMA, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science
(ASCLS), American Society for Clinical
Pathology (ASCP), American Medical
Technologists (AMT), American Association of
Bioanalysts (ABB), American Association for
Clinical Chemistry (AACC), Association of Public Health
Laboratories (APHL), and the AABB.
According to statistics compiled by the American Society for Clinical
Pathology (ASCP), there currently may be as many as 40,000 unfilled clinical
laboratory jobs in the United States. The shortage of clinical lab scientists
is a serious problem, and the stakes are high. According to U.S. Department of
Labor projections, approximately 13,800 medical laboratory professionals will
be needed every year through 2012 to fill vacant positions. Unfortunately,
fewer than 5,000 professionals are graduating from educational programs each
year.
Clinical laboratory professionals play a leading role in monitoring health,
diagnosing diseases, and assessing the treatment of patients. More than 70 percent of the objective information used to make
diagnostic decisions is derived from the clinical lab. This tremendous
contribution comes at a great value: most clinical labs take up less than 5 percent of a hospital's operating budget.
Online Scholarship Contest and Other Recruitment
Programs
As part of the Facebook initiative, the Labs Are Vital collaboration is also
offering an online scholarship contest for college and high school students.
Abbott is joined in this effort by the American Society for Clinical Laboratory
Sciences (ASCLS), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and
Blood Systems, Inc.
Contest entrants must submit a video, advertisement, or T-shirt design that
encourages others to consider careers in laboratory medicine. Submissions
selected for the semifinalist category will be available to view online where
Facebook members will vote on those that most creatively illustrate why
clinical lab science is cutting-edge and how laboratorians make a
difference.
Other recruitment activities include the launch of a student-focused Web
site, www.LabScienceCareers.com, where
students can find information on career opportunities and educational programs
in clinical lab sciences.
Quotes:
"Social media have been used successfully
by Fortune 500 companies in highly targeted recruitment efforts, and we think
it's an innovative way to address the labor shortage we're facing in the
clinical laboratory sciences. "The primary benefit of Facebook is the
peer-to-peer outreach that puts clinical lab science students and professionals
in contact with students who may not be aware of the exciting career
opportunities in clinical labs, public health labs, and transfusion
medicine."
"One of the most critical components to
improving some of the problems that face the clinical lab sciences is a broad
communications effort initiated by Labs Are Vital to ensure current and future
generations understand the importance of the work lab professionals do everyday
and consider entering into the profession."
Paula Garrott is the Interim Director
of the Natural Science Division and Chair and Associate Professor Emerita of
the Clinical Laboratory Science Department at the University of Illinois at
Springfield. In addition she is a partner in a laboratory consulting firm, The
Laboratory Consultants, Inc. of Illinois.
She received a B.S. in Biology/Medical
Technology from Millikin University and a Master's Degree in Education from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Paula has been active in ASCLS and
ASCLS-Illinois for over 30 years. She served as President of ASCLS in 2002-03
and currently is Chair of the ASCLS Government Affairs Committee.
She is a former member of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory
Committee, and is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of the National
Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences and is the Chair of the
Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce.
About Labs Are Vital™
Labs Are Vital is a
multi-pronged, multi-year education and awareness program sponsored by Abbott
that is designed to highlight the critical role that laboratory professionals
play in healthcare and to address the issues facing laboratories today. The
program – which includes a public awareness campaign, an Instrument Donation
Program, and a variety of Web-based resources for laboratory professionals –
focuses attention on the life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide
in diagnosing disease and improving health outcomes.
About Abbott
Abbott (NYSE: ABT)
is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery,
development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical
products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs
65,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.
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Media Contact:
Don Braakman |
(847) 937-0080 |
