DCLS - Doctorate in Clinical Laboratory Sciences A Force Multiplier for Laboratory Medicine

Author(s): Brandy Gunsolus, Brooke M Whitaker, Kellie A. Vinson, Leah Ames, Professor. Gurmukh Singh

Clinical laboratories depend on phlebotomists, medical laboratory technicians, medical laboratory scientists, information technology specialists, doctoral scientists and pathologists. A new category of healthcare professional, Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Sciences (DCLS), has added another dimension to the operation of the laboratory. The first DCLS professional graduated in 2018 from Rutgers’s University, after her residency training at AU Medical Center. She focused her efforts at improving laboratory utilization which formed the basis of her doctoral degree. Recognizing the significant improvements and cost savings, a second DCLS was recruited in 2020.The contributions of the first two DCLSs have been instrumental in effecting a positive change in (a) cost avoidance of $48 MM from 2018 to 2022, (b) additional revenue of $1.4MM in 2019 (c) introducing a novel patient safety measure of hypercritical values, (d) introduced 91 new tests in-house and achieved cost savings in reference laboratory cost (e) improved diagnostic stewardship by reducing the number of excessive, redundant tests, correcting inappropriate timing of tests and by offering alternative tests with better clinical efficacy (f) served as role models for the medical laboratory science students and improved their recruitment and prompted additional laboratory scientists to pursue enrollment in a DCLS program (g) enhanced experience for pathology residents leading to significant improvement in their examination scores; and most prominently (h) addressed the institutional response to COVID-19 exigency though spearheading testing for the state of Georgia, that has immeasurably elevated the standing of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine among the clinical staff and lay public.

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