A Small Look: Med Lab in Social Media

At the end of August, the Medical Laboratory Professionals’ Association of Ontario (MLPAO) held a pop-up webinar called “The Positive Power of Social Media in the Medical Laboratory” with Dr. Jo Horne (https://twitter.com/hornej13) and Maria Roussakis, MLT (https://twitter.com/medlabmaria).

It was the first webinar that I’ve ever attended. As I sat there listening to their presentation, I can only marvel about the role social media plays in today’s society and how helpful it can be when an individual is looking for information. It also reminded me of why I started my blog. 

The most crucial points in the presentation started the question “Why Use Social Media?”. These points encompass what it means to have a social media account that surrounds a particular career or study like the scicomm community! They are:

• Leadership
• Education
• Networking
• Promotion
• Advocacy

I shifted my blog and Instagram page to focus on the medical laboratory assistant/technician field because of the lack of information and individual experiences from students and professionals. When I was in my final year at university, I tried to find as much information as possible about the field. I just wanted to try and find people who were students or professionals to follow their careers. It was tough. I looked on Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and even Google to see if I could find any blog posts about the field. I mostly found technologists but not assistants or technicians. If I found a technician, they were in the USA or just somewhere else in the world, or they didn’t post or talk about anything related to the field.

I would say it’s still a bit difficult to find people in the med lab. Here’s where I think most med lab people are:

• Twitter: the best place to find people, especially professionals
• Instagram: you can find a lot of students, with some professionals
• LinkedIn: hard to find people actively using it who are in healthcare and aren’t in business/ tech
• Youtube: is practically all ads from colleges trying to get people to apply for the program at their schools with only some med lab-related stuff

I think it’s important to talk about your field because not only do you educate and bring light to the area, but you also provide information to those who are thinking about a career in it. I’m so happy I started this blog and my Instagram page because people have reached out to ask questions about being an MLA/T student and the job’s critical responsibilities. I’ve also been reaching out and connecting with those in/ studying to be in the medical laboratory; even though they aren’t MLA/Ts, it’s still interesting to see what their jobs/ studies entail and how similar and different the jobs are!

In general, I believe the med lab field is getting more recognized (mainly because of a particular virus), and more people are jumping on social media to talk about it! I think it’s excellent! I’m happy that there will be people who will look at our content and understand our profession and its role in healthcare.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate it! This is not a long post; I wanted to post something that I can look back on and see how much the med lab community grows on the socials. I’ve been in a slump lately, so this blog post isn’t as concise as usual and a bit random. I wanted to get this info out there and to get myself to write again. Anyways have a lovely day!