Study on the Professionalism of Medical Technologists’ Work in Health Examination Centers: Focusing on the General Health Examination

Received July 26, 2020 Revised August 15, 2020 Accepted August 20, 2020 “Health examinations” means medical examinations conducted by health examination institutions, including a physical examination, consultation, physical measurement, diagnostic laboratory test (also known as clinical laboratory test, clinical pathology test), pathology test, and Imaging test for checking the health condition and the prevention and early detection of diseases. The types of health examinations include general health examinations, comprehensive health examinations, special health examinations, and other health examinations. The proportion of the general health examination work of medical technologists working at health examination centers has been estimated to comprise more than 50% of the total work. The cost aspect of suspicious diseases can be estimated to be more than 25%. The cost of diagnostic laboratory test has been estimated to be approximately 5%, and the proportion of medical diagnosis use is 70%. The results show that it is time to revisit whether medical technologists are receiving appropriate social, economic, and reasonable policy treatment in health examination work. The future of medical technologists will further expand their professionalism in diagnostic laboratory test and quality control in precision medicine and telemedicine in the future. Therefore, medical technologists will need to participate proactively in government policy decisions related to national health examinations and make efforts to improve treatment. Copyright C 2020 The Korean Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. All rights reserved.