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Advancing Patient Care

Empowering Enhanced Professionalism

Through a variety of engagements with the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario (CMLTO), medical laboratory technologists (MLTs) have expressed their opinions about two key issues:

  • how changing expectations of the health care system will affect their professional practice
  • how enhanced professionalism will further enable positive patient outcomes

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These discussions suggested the need to revisit both the MLT’s role in the health care system and the CMLTO’s definition of professionalism.

In April 2010, the CMLTO released the Medical Laboratory Technologists: Empowering Enhanced Professionalism White Paper. It underscores how the provision of safe, high-quality laboratory services is critically important to efficient and effective health care delivery.

The CMLTO promotes and supports interprofessional collaboration in the interest of providing best patient care. By acting as a catalyst for engagement with MLTs and the broader health care system, the CMLTO can empower enhanced professionalism and champion aspects of professionalism that relate directly to its mandate as health regulatory College.

The white paper promotes and supports interprofessional collaboration and the CMLTO plans to use this document to continue the conversation with MLTs and a broad array of stakeholders. You’re invited to be a part of the conversation. Please take the opportunity to read this white paper and contact the CMLTO Policy and Knowledge Management at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to share your thoughts on enhanced professionalism.

 

Public Awareness Campaign

In early December 2009, the CMLTO launched a public awareness campaign to clarify the role of medical laboratory technologists (MLTs), generate confidence in the professionals who produce lab test results, and reinforce the CMLTO’s role in self-regulation and public protection.

MLTs perform nearly half a million lab tests in Ontario each day. A blood sugar test to diagnose or monitor diabetes...a biopsy to check for cancer…prenatal testing to detect genetic diseases…enzyme analysis to identify heart disease…assessment of cells and tissues to aid surgical decisions – through these and thousands more tests, MLTs provide the results other health professionals need to deliver the best care.

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The results of these tests inform life-altering decisions about everything from diabetes management and prenatal screening to blood and organ transplant and genetic disease.

MLTs perform a critical role in this process. As regulated health care professionals mandated by the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, MLTs meet strict safety and ethical standards and are accountable for their conduct and practise. These safeguards ensure the public can have confidence in their lab tests.

Members of the medical laboratory technology profession know the key role they perform in the health care system – now members of the public will have a greater understanding too.

Information cards (public protection and trust your test) are currently on display at lab facilities across Ontario. To learn more about the campaign, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


Health Human Resources Reports

As part of its mandate, and as required by legislation, the CMLTO captures demographic information related to its membership during initial registration and annual membership renewal.

Such data on health professions and practices often supports health human resource planning.

The analysis of the CMLTO membership database -- reporting on such areas as MLT practice, employment facility and status, and the provision of MLT education -- is presented in the CMLTO Health Human Resource Exploration reports.

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The CMLTO plans to release the CMLTO Health Human Resource Exploration report each December and, each June, a supplementary report that will provide analysis of the data set in response to a focused question. If you have an interest in the presented data, or would like to discuss an MLT health human resource data need, please contact CMLTO Policy and Knowledge Management at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To support broader-based health human resource planning for medical laboratory technology, two additional initiatives are ongoing through the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC):

  • The Medical Laboratory Technologist Database (MLTDB) is administered by CIHI and has collected information from regulatory bodies and professional associations across Canada with the aim to: “provide standardized comparative data and reports on demographic, geographic, education and employment information for medical laboratory technologists in Canada."
  • The Health Professions Database (HPDB) is administered by HealthForceOntario, a branch of the MOHLTC. The database, once populated will: “provide standardized, consistent and comparable demographic, geographic, educational, and employment information on all of the regulated allied health professionals in Ontario.”