Career descriptions: Medical laboratory assistant

Clinical laboratory testing plays a crucial role in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease. Medical laboratory assistants – also known as medical laboratory aides, medical technicians, medical laboratory technicians or clinical laboratory technicians – perform most of these tests.
Medical lab assistants are a necessary part of the patient diagnosis process. They are constantly analyzing body tissue and fluid samples taken from patients at hospitals, clinics or physicians’ offices. Most lab assistants work under the direction of lab technologists and scientists. They are responsible for making chemical solutions and stocks of culture media, sterilizing equipment, labeling and sorting tissue samples, operating equipment and using computer programs to analyze test results.