Overview

Owing to great advances in biomedicine and technology, the role of medical laboratory specialists in patient care and management has gained great momentum in recent years. The wide array of diagnostic lab tests performed by the diagnostic lab in any health care facility is a cornerstone upon which physicians and practitioners base their professional decisions as to how to treat and manage patients. Hence, there is a growing need for highly qualified senior lab practitioners who could oversee the work of specialist and ensure the highest level of quality. Hospitals and other health care facilities as well as accrediting entities consider it a pre-requisite for any medical diagnosis lab to be supervised by competent and well-trained individuals. The department of Medical Lab Sciences at the University of Sharjah prides itself on being one of few academic departments in the UAE and the Gulf Region to train competent medical lab scientists. However, as junior professionals, it takes our graduates many years of practice to gain the experience and knowledge necessary to work as senior lab managers. Additionally, there are batteries of advanced and technically-challenging biochemical and molecular tests that need special training and can only be conducted by senior specialists. The proposed program is designed in such a way to help prospective students to develop the theoretical background and technical skills needed for such professional roles through tailor-made theoretical and practical courses. Students will also acquire the theoretical and practical experience in lab quality control and quality assurance by enrolling in compulsory courses designed to help them achieve this goal. Gaining enough proficiency to be an effective liaison of the profession, be it with medical teams at their facility, government agencies, public and private health care sectors, or quality control/assurance entities requires much deeper knowledge and experience than what a regular undergraduate training program in medical lab sciences would usually provide.