Press Start: Lead an Empowered Life as a Clinical Laboratorian : On Our Minds

Coping with transitions

Glen McDaniel — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:30:00 GMT

My friend Martha is 60 years old. She had been with her company for years in various roles from manager to director and finally COO. This past year she had some challenges related to her health, her mom died and she got divorced after almost 40 years...(read more)

Laboratory Professionals Get Results

Glen McDaniel — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:11:00 GMT

It is that time of year when we celebrate National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (NMLPW). This is a week when the various, often competing, laboratory organizations join forces to honor the more than 300,000 medical laboratory professionals around...(read more)

Wanna Buy a Credential?

Glen McDaniel — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:16:00 GMT

Since the ASCP took over the popular and progressive NCA in 2009, I have periodically received emails from medical lab professionals not happy with the merger for various reasons. Prompted by this overwhelming response, I have previously blogged about...(read more)

How Will the Sequester Affect You?

Glen McDaniel — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:35:00 GMT

With all this talk about sequestration everyone is bound to be concerned with how these spending cuts will affect them. Sequestration is such an odd word to be used Congress and picked up by the media as if it were a part of the regular lexicon. It is...(read more)

References Could Make or Break Your Job Search

Glen McDaniel — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:24:00 GMT

Many individuals have decided that 2013 is the year they change jobs. Others are looking for employment because they have recently lost a job. According to polls conducted by Human Resource firm Allison &Taylor one of the 10 most popular New Year's...(read more)

Disruptive Technologies of 2013

Glen McDaniel — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:34:00 GMT

Most of us with our smart phone and tablets and wireless cable boxes do not generally think of technology as being disruptive or being a bad thing. Disruptive generally suggests annoyance or interruption like a traffic jam or electrical outage that throw...(read more)

Happy New Year

Glen McDaniel — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:25:00 GMT

As 2012 draws to a close, it is common to look backwards over the past year and to set course for the year ahead. As my readers know, I am not one for making New Year's resolutions, but only because the practice is so contrived and ineffective, with many...(read more)

No Emmy for My Hard Work?

Glen McDaniel — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:31:00 GMT

I love attending parties. For one, I get to unwind and spend time with friends. But I also love the opportunity of meeting new people and hearing about their lives. I have long realized that I learn much more from listening than I do from talking and...(read more)

Speed Kills

Glen McDaniel — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 03:11:00 GMT

As clinical laboratorians we are taught the importance of the information we provide for clinical decision making. Technology has made it possible to use small sample sizes to generate "numbers" in a very short period of time. Sometimes physicians (and...(read more)

World AIDS Day Recap

Glen McDaniel — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 22:36:00 GMT

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day . This is the 25 th annual observance of the day originally organized under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise the awareness of HIV/AIDS and garner support for research, understanding, education...(read more)

Elections are Over

Glen McDaniel — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:06:00 GMT

The 2012 Presidential elections are now over. After a record estimated 6 billion dollars and a hugely divided electorate, President Barack Obama was re-elected rather resoundingly for a second four year term. In many ways this was not the highpoint in...(read more)

ASCLS and CLMA Talks Break Down Luckily

Glen McDaniel — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 18:12:00 GMT

I recently learned that the merger talks between two laboratory organizations ASCLS and CLMA have broken down. Now it might surprise you that as a long time, avid advocate of professional unification, I was not really devastated by this news. Here's some...(read more)

Why Doctors Abuse Lab Tests

Glen McDaniel — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 18:37:00 GMT

One of the most frustrating issues for clinical laboratorians is that clinicians continue to misuse laboratory testing. Laboratory utilization is a hot potato because of increased concerns with cost (to the laboratory and payer), extended length of stay...(read more)

Do You Practice the Olympic Spirit?

Glen McDaniel — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:27:00 GMT

The 2012 Summer Olympics in London just ended. I joined billions of people around the globe to watch sports from track and field to BMX racing and many in between. Not surprisingly, there were the stars and record breakers. US swimmer Michael Phelps became...(read more)

Membership Organizations Need to Step up Their Game

Glen McDaniel — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 18:02:00 GMT

I have long advocated active membership in professional organizations. We need a strong unified voice to represent us, whether we are educating the public or speaking to a legislator. I also firmly believe that sitting back and expecting "others" to do...(read more)