NEW YORK – ARUP Laboratories and the University of Utah's Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences said Tuesday that they are building a new Advanced Practice Clinical Laboratory Training Center with $3 million in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration.
The University of Utah said it expects the new facility will allow it to meet its goal of doubling the number of annual graduates of its laboratory training program to 80.
The $3 million in federal funds, which were included in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Division of the Consolidated Appropriations Act passed at the end of the year, will fund construction of the center as well as the purchase of necessary instrumentation. The university's Medical Laboratory Sciences Division will also provide funds for faculty and staff to provide instruction. The center has also received a grant for a laboratory information system. It is scheduled to open in 2024.
The new center "will make a huge difference in the training of future laboratory professionals," Diana Wilkins, division chief of Medical Laboratory Sciences in the University of Utah's Department of Pathology, said in a statement. "This collaborative effort is really a very creative way to increase the number of students we can graduate each year."
Staffing shortages have been a persistent problem for the lab industry, with an insufficient number of clinical training sites for laboratory medicine students contributing to this issue.