New Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce Coalition Gaining Traction

ASCP is gaining recognition among several prominent allied health organizations for its integral role in establishing the Medical and Public Health Laboratory Workforce Coalition (MPHLWC) and other workforce initiatives.

The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), which represents more than 100 national health profession associations, providers, certification bodies, and educators, recently invited ASCP staff to provide an overview of how the coalition was developed, its current activities, and goals at its symposium in January. Laboratory workforce data and initiatives were also shared, demonstrating partnerships among laboratory organizations to support the pathology and laboratory field. 

“CAAHEP is one of our coalition members and its Executive Director Gina Scarboro thought it would be beneficial for allied health representatives to hear about the development of the coalition,” says Edna Garcia, MPH, ASCP Senior Director of Scientific Engagement and Research, who represented ASCP at the symposium in Jacksonville, FL.

The MPHLWC coalition was several years in the making. Ms. Garcia explained that ASCP collaborated with the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies in 2021 in a study on the medical laboratory workforce. The data that emerged from that study went into a report, known as the Blueprint for Action, which outlined recommendations to address the workforce shortage. Following the publication of the Blueprint, ASCP established a Workforce Steering Committee which is working to implement the recommendations.

“It appears that some of the allied health professions encounter challenges in gathering the kind of robust data that we have, whereas ASCP has other partners that help us in the data gathering process,” Ms. Garcia says.

She will give a similar presentation in March in Pentagon City, VA, before the American Blood Center, also a coalition partner.  

“ASCP is unique in the partnerships it has established over many years,” Ms. Garcia says. “Through these partnerships among lab-related organizations, we were able such robust data and creating multifaceted initiatives to strengthen the medical laboratory workforce. We are more than happy to share with other allied health organizations the process that we created as we strive to strengthen the laboratory workforce.”

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