The new medical scientists
Graduates from different eras: Danielle Kuzman and Barry Gormley |
Working behind the scenes in hundreds of hospitals, pathology labs and research institutes around the country, medical scientists play a low-profile yet vital role in the Australian health system. Their scientific knowledge, steady hands and technical expertise are essential in helping to diagnose illness and develop new treatments, yet they are rarely seen by patients.
Their specific roles vary widely, with many different specialisations, but some examples of typical activities include taking and analysing blood, ‘cutting’ (preparing for analysis) tissue samples, and analysing DNA to help better diagnose and predict the likelihood of cancer.
This year marks a milestone in the development of the profession in South
Australia, as UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences celebrates 40
years of professional courses in
laboratory medicine.
Barry Gormley, 65, and Danielle Kuzman, 27, are just two of the thousands
who have graduated with qualifications in laboratory medicine since they
were first established at UniSA’s antecedent institution, the South
Australian Institute of Technology, in the 1960s.
Gormley was one of the first students to take what was then known as medical laboratory technology. He studied part time while working at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital (now the Women’s and Children’s Hospital), and went on to carve out a long and fulfilling career which included 20 years heading histopathology at Flinders Medical Centre and 15 years teaching a new generation of scientists at university.
Over the past 40 years, he has seen dramatic changes in the profession, from sweeping technological advances to an increased emphasis on occupational health and safety. “Like just about all workplaces in the ‘60s, smoking on the job was common, and there used to be some dangerous practices for handling materials we now know are hazardous,” Gormley recalls.
Many of these less-than-sophisticated laboratory techniques – used before formal education ushered in more stringent standards – made for a wide margin of error, according to Neil Quintrell, author of From Craft to Science, a new book on the history of medical science and pharmacy education in South Australia. “Given the low level of technology and its dependence on the skill of the individual technician, practitioners reported considerable variability of tests,” he says. “Error rates for blood cell counts could be as high as plus or minus 30 per cent in the 1940s.”
Nowadays that margin has narrowed to the point of being almost infinitesimal and as well as performing common tests such as pregnancy or AIDS tests, medical scientists have become versed in genetics and tumour diagnosis.
For all the changes in technology, Barry Gormley says some things have stayed the same. “Many methods have become automated, but that hasn’t taken away the need for fine manual laboratory skills – if anything they are more in demand than ever,” he says. “We have a far greater variety of tests available today than in the ‘60s, and graduates with an understanding of the broad range of diagnostic techniques are finding themselves highly sought-after by employers.”
Danielle Kuzman graduated from UniSA in 2002 and has been a medical scientist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital for the past four and a half years. She says she loves her job because it makes use of her scientific and analytical skills while offering a chance to make a difference to people’s lives.
“I was always interested in science experiments in high school, and I liked
the idea of working in a hospital, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be at the
‘coalface’ of the health system,” she says. “Working in a lab is
challenging, no day is the same, and it’s good knowing you’re helping
people.”
Kuzman says one of the best things about studying at UniSA was the fact that
her degree included a two-semester clinical placement in a real working
laboratory. “Doing the placement prepared me so well that by the time I had
completed my studies I was offered a senior role at the IMVS (Institute for
Medical and Veterinary Science) lab in Port Augusta.”
She says that while many medical scientists spend a lot of time in the laboratory, there are plenty of other potential career directions for laboratory medicine graduates. “A lot of the people I studied with worked in a lab for a few years before going on to roles in management, research, and even sales and marketing.”
More about UniSA’s
Bachelor of Laboratory Medicine