Educating a new generation of clinical laboratory scientists

In many countries the new generation of laboratory scientists comes from the graduates of the biological sciences. Their training in the sciences is usually of high quality, but is almost totally lacking in the clinical application of their scientific knowledge. They obtain this clinical knowledge most often by on-the-job training and experience. This paper describes a new undergraduate academic program in Laboratory Medicine developed at the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. The program is carried out with the collaboration of the Faculty of Biology and the Faculty of Medicine, and upon completion of the classroom studies there is a period of internship for practical experience. The first students of the program are now in their internship period and will graduate this year.