Editorial
The Need for Unity
Larry Birnbaum
Associate Professor
Board Certified Exercise Physiologist
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811
PROBABLY EVERYONE has heard the expression:
“United we stand, divided we fall.” The message in this editorial
is not new. It has been stated by numerous leaders in numerous fields
at several levels of society. Specifically, it has been advocated
by authors of several PEPonline articles
for the purpose of advancing the field of exercise physiology. Unfortunately,
it seems many exercise physiologists do not understand the gravity of the
message. The message is simple. It is a call for all exercise
physiologists to stand together as one entity in pursuit of our own professional
identity. The failure to stand together will likely result in the
failure to be recognized as a profession. The history of another
health science field, clinical laboratory science/medical technology, will
hopefully help exercise physiologists understand that this is not just
rhetoric.
Clinical laboratory science can trace its
origins back to around the turn of the century. John Hopkins Hospital
started a lab in 1896. The American Society of Clinical Pathologists
(ASCP) was organized in 1922. In 1928, the ASCP Board of Registry
began to function as a certification agency. The first list of approved
medical technology schools was published by the American Medical Association
(AMA) in 1933. The American Society for Medical Technology
(ASMT) was established in 1933 as a professional association (http://www.ascls.org/membership/history.asp).
In 1939, the American Medical Technologists (AMT) association was established
as a certifying agency and professional association (http://www.amt1.com/site/epage/9358_315.htm).
Apparently, not all medical technologists felt that ASCP was the best organization
to represent their interests, at least partly because it included and was
controlled by pathologists. The National Credentialing Agency for
Laboratory Personnel, Inc. (NCA) was established in the late 1970s and
certified qualified laboratorians as clinical laboratory scientists.
This new certifying agency was sponsored by ASMT. The ASMT changed
its name to the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS)
in 1993. There is also an International Society for Clinical Laboratory
Technologists that offers a certification exam (1). Karni et al.
(2) list 18 different professional organizations of interest for laboratory
personnel.
Clinical laboratory science (CLS) is not
composed of an exceedingly large number of laboratorians. The splintering
of the membership into multiple professional organizations has had deleterious
effects for the field. The failure of laboratorians to represent
themselves in a unified voice has resulted in the passage of legislation
unfavorable to the field. The clinical laboratory has suffered numerous
setbacks on reimbursement issues, so much so that the lab is now a cost
center whereas it was a major, if not the major, revenue generator for
hospitals in its hey day. Perhaps the greatest problem faced by the
clinical laboratory field is the lack of recognition as a profession by
numerous physicians, other health science practitioners and the general
public. While clinical laboratory scientists/medical technologists
perceive themselves as professionals, it is apparent that others do not.
I will not argue whether or not the field is truly a profession.
The point is that the lack of unity has seriously hurt the field.
The numerous professional organizations and certifying agencies have diluted
benefits associated with professionalism.
It is obvious that a profession needs one
organization solely devoted to representing its members only, not the members
of numerous other fields. Such an organization has the best interests
of the members of the profession at heart. It is controlled by and
represents that one profession only. Its strength is derived from
the unity of its members. The efforts of such an organization are
not diluted by the interests of other professions. If exercise physiologists
want to be recognized as professionals, if they want fair reimbursement
for services provided, if they want to control their own destiny, they
must stand together with the only organization solely devoted to exercise
physiologists, the American Society of Exercise
Physiologists (ASEP).
References
1. Beck SJ., LeGrys VA. Clinical
Laboratory Education, 2nd edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company,
1996.
2. Karni K, Oliver JS. Opportunities
in Medical Technology Careers. VGM Career Horizons, 1990.
