What Larry said is true. However, I must take issue with the word
"technician." A technologist has more training than a technician: MT's
(medical technologists) have a four year degree and/or a year of
laboratory internship that covers all areas of the clinical laboratory.
We then take a national registry examination. ASCP is the registry that
the majority of techs in the U.S. have, although there are others.
http://tinyurl.com/5k4uky - This is the ASCP site that shows the
different levels of laboratory workers
Most microbiology departments in the U.S. employ MT's as the work is
considered complex. The level of complexity of lab work requires
different levels of training.
Physicians do NOT work in the lab, except on the TV series "House." Do
not confuse TV with real life :-(.
Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
Microbiology
"Larry Farrell" <farrlarr from isu.edu> wrote in message
news:8cd6f$484c637b$29693 from news.teranews.com...
>> A really basic issue, suggested by some of the other responses but not
> explicitly addressed, is that doctors do not do *any* of the
> identification, whether machinery is used or not. The samples taken,
> usually not by the doctor, are sent to the lab where technicians
> trained in identification techniques specific to identification of the
> types of organisms suspected (bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.) do the
> actual work of identification. Doctors are trained to use that
> information for diagnosis, but they do not do identification.
