title: [The medical technologist as a key professional in medical care in the 21st century].
abstract: The dynamic healthcare environment of Japan, including the rapidly aging population and the requirement of highly sophisticated and diverse medical care, induces strict financial conditions and increases the number of those seeking medical care. Therefore, medical professionals are now required to provide safe and effective medical care with limited medical resources. Recently, Japanese medical institutions have introduced the total quality management system, which was developed for better business management, to promote safe and effective management. However, there are two major drawbacks with the introduction of this system in the sector of medical care in Japan. First, the standardization of medical skills of medical professionals is greatly affected due to the presence of different education systems for the same medical profession except for medical doctors and pharmacologists. The education system for major medical professionals, such as nurses and medical and radiological technologists, must be standardized based on the university norms. Second, the knowledge-creating process among the medical professionals has been associated with many problems. The specialized fields are quite different among medical professionals. Therefore, common specialized fields must be established among major medical professions based on the specialization of medical doctors to promote their communication and better understanding. Considering the roles of medical professionals in medical care, medical doctors and nurses are the most responsible for monitoring, assessing, and guaranteeing the safety of medical care, and medical and radiological technologists are the most responsible for effective medical care. The current medical technologists are not only required to carry out clinical laboratory tests, but also be proactive and positive as well as have marked problem-solving abilities. They are expected to improve the diagnostic test systems in medical institutes for medical doctors and patients, resulting in the highest level of management efficiency. For the development of such medical technologists, university education, specialist capabilities in medical technology and clinical laboratory diagnostics, and a research capability are essential. Thus, it is crucial for clinical laboratory physicians and the Japanese medical care system of the 21st century to urgently develop such an education system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Area of Medical Technology and Science, Division of Health Sciences, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita 565-0871, Japan. iwatani@sahs.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwatani
mesh_terms: D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D017056:Medical Laboratory Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000639:trends*; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science / Q000639:trends*; D017749:Total Quality Management