The University of California Davis Medical Center Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine celebrated National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week from April 24th – 30th. The week exposes all of the behind-the-scenes testing that laboratory professionals perform as a part of the patient-care team. According to Lydia Pleotis Howell, professor and chair of the U.C. Davis department, “studies have found that more than 70% of all medical decisions are based on information from laboratory tests.”
Part of the celebration this year included the creation of a children’s coloring book, meant to introduce kids to the processes and instruments that are part of a lab, as well as the value of clinical laboratory professionals and their contributions. The books, along with crayons, were distributed to patients in the infusion area aged 10 and younger.
Many of the images included in the book were drawn by employees of the department. PAYETTE also participated by contributing hand-drawn images of the U.C. Davis Medical Center, as well as several computer rendered and hand-drawn images inspired by our own laboratory design work at Tufts Science and Engineering Complex, and the Sherman Fairchild Shadow Study.
