5 Characteristics of a Successful Medical Laboratory Scientist

Five Traits of a Great Medical Laboratory Scientist

Passion for Learning
Observational Expertise
Communication
Making Decisions
Data Analysis

Knowing about the top five characteristics of a successful medical laboratory scientist could help a person decide if they are well-suited to this career. In addition to having the academic and hands-on talents required in a laboratory environment, a person who wants to work in a laboratory as a medical scientist should also have these five traits.

1. Passion for Learning

Medical science is an ever-growing field. A person who wants to work in this profession should have an unending passion for learning. They should be ready to read multiple relevant scientific journals on a regular basis. The successful medical scientist should also be up-to-date on new tools, equipment, and software for use in sample collection, experiments, and analysis. They should be able to share this passion with others, including the students and researchers they lead.

2. Observational Expertise

When a medical scientist is conducting an experiment, they must be able to observe small changes in samples and results. The ability to notice an anomaly or difference, no matter how small or how rare, could make the difference in a person’s career. Sometimes, major discoveries are based on one anomalous result or a small change in a sample. They should also be adept at using different observational tools, including microscopes, computer software, and data analysis systems.

3. Communication

Another one of the five characteristics of a successful medical laboratory scientist is communication, explains the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A medical scientist must be able to communicate the results of their experiments. They may need to do this orally and in written form. They should be able to explain complex concepts to a person who is not a scientist, such as if they get interviewed by a journalist about an article that they published in a scientific journal. Medical scientists who are also practicing physicians should be skilled at communicating with their patients and explaining the parameters of clinical trials or other scientific studies that they want the patient to consider.

4. Making Decisions

Time and resources are limited, especially in the laboratory. Equipment is expensive, and a medical scientist might have to choose one item over another. They may also have to decide when to end an experiment, especially if it has gone awry or is not producing any useful results. They should also know when a negative result is useful and what it means for their study. Medical scientists must know which questions to ask and what information they need in order to answer those questions.

5. Data Analysis

A medical laboratory scientist should be skilled at analyzing the data they collect. Most studies result in tremendous amounts of data. The data cannot be handled manually in most cases, so the scientist should know which piece of software would be the best tool to analyze it. They should know how to clean and arrange the data so that it can be analyzed, such as coding results into 0 for yes and 1 for no in order to do logistic regression.

These are not the only skills that a successful medical scientist in a lab should have, but they are critical to personal and professional satisfaction in this career. A person can also hone these five characteristics of a successful medical laboratory scientist as they learn new laboratory techniques and expand their base of scientific knowledge.

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