Celebrating National Medical Laboratory Week
The Cree Health Board is proud to acknowledge its dedicated Medical Laboratory teams in Chisasibi and Mistissini. They play a key role in the fight against COVID-19.
Mistissini team members are: Valérie Cloutier, Mohamed Abass Oualy, and Claudine Perron.
Medical Laboratory Technicians are often invisible to our clients, but they are essential for the wellbeing of the population in the Eeyou Istchee. They play a key role in the fight against COVID-19 by analyzing the specimens from the nose swabs that are taken from potentially infected individuals.
The Laboratory service was especially important during the COVD-19 outbreak in January 2021, as their data helped to track positive cases and enabled us to contain the outbreak. Their dedication and hard work are keeping everyone in Eeyou Istchee safe.
Did you know?
The teams in Chisasibi and Mistissini conducted 316,908 lab tests in the last twelve months. These tests help physicians to understand their patients’ medical conditions by analyzing blood, body fluids and tissue samples.
What do lab technicians do?
Laboratory Technologists deal with a variety of tasks that allow them to study and examine specimens that could provide clues to a person’s condition. The medical laboratory technologists are responsible for analyzing specimens in many fields of study, including
- microbiology (e.g. throat cultures to detect strep throat infections)
- biochemistry (e.g. glucose dosage in diabetes, heart attack detection, etc)
- haematology (e.g. testing to detect anemia)
- blood bank (e.g. testing and preparing blood for safe transfusions)
- virology (e.g. COVID-19 testing)
The Cree Health Board would also like to thank the hard work of Medical Laboratory Assistants, responsible for nearly all of the COVID-19 testing done in Chisasibi.
Pictured: Jessica Brassard (Tech. category B - COVID tests)
“The Medical Laboratory team has been incredible during this pandemic, ensuring the establishment of new protocols and training of new staff including tech B employees, as well as starting new equipment and updating and adjusting to ever-changing protocols. The lab team was able to answer and successfully manage the outbreak in January 2021. For all of that, I strongly believe they deserve our collective recognition and thanks.” -– Philippe Lubino, Director of Regional Hospital Services, Chisasibi
Explore more
The Regional Laboratory Department analyses blood or urine samples to help health care professionals diagnose and treat conditions and diseases.
