A Study on Certifying Systems for Clinical Laboratory Scientists

Reviewing and comparing the certifying systems for clinical laboratory scientists in some developed countries would be meaningful for us in the renovation of our current systems. Through the homepages of relevant organizations in five countries we got the information on education and certifying systems for clinical laboratory scientists. And we also e-mailed or made phone calls directly to the chairpersons for more additional data. The ladders systems in both educational and certifying were well developed in the United States compared to other countries. ln Japan and Korea, it seemed that too many competencies are required for the entry-level medical technologist requiring even competencies in the fields of histo-pathology, cytology, clinical physiology in the current medical technologist's job descriptions. Now we have to evaluate the applicants' competencies at the entry-level and establish the content outlines as a guideline for the applicants. For more reliable and efficient evaluations we might consider adopting the computerized testing like CBT or CAT