ARUP Laboratories and Weber State University Team Up to Provide Laboratory Education...( SALT LAKE CITY Jan. 8 /- In response ...),Health

SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to a critical shortage of qualified laboratory professionals nationwide, ARUP Laboratories, a national medical reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, and Weber State University (WSU), a pioneer in the distance-learning arena, have partnered to promote and facilitate the education of medical technologists (MT) and medical laboratory technicians (MLT). ARUP and WSU initiated this unique distance-learning curriculum in September of 2008, successfully providing ARUP clients with the means to educate laboratory personnel without taking them away from their work sites. The application deadline for the spring 2009 semester is coming up quickly on February 1, 2009. Information on the program and registration is available at www.aruplab.com/weber.

"According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period of 2002 through 2010, 12,400 graduates will be needed annually to staff the nation's clinical laboratories. However, on a national basis less than half of the necessary laboratory personnel are graduating," said ARUP President and COO Ronald L. Weiss, MD, MBA. "We are seeing these shortages become more critical within community health systems that are growing their outreach programs. This collaboration provides our client laboratories with an opportunity to educate laboratory personnel, without removing them from the workplace."

The partnership between ARUP and WSU is providing enhanced opportunities for ARUP client institutions to access Web-based education in the field of medical technology to obtain Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) bachelor's degrees and Clinical Laboratory Technician (CLT) associate's degrees online.

WSU, based in Ogden, Utah, has been recognized for its groundbreaking academic programs and was the first university to offer a
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