Laws/Bioethics

• Medical Technology is a profession concerned with providing information based on the performance of analytical tests on human body substances to detect evidence of or prevent disease or impairment and to promote and monitor good health.
• Medical Technology assures reliable test results which contribute to the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of physiological and pathological conditions.
• Clinical Chemistry involves the biochemical analysis of body fluids such as serum, plasma, or whole blood, testing parameters like Glucose, Lipids, Hormones, Enzymes, and Electrolytes.
• Willa Hilgert-Hedrick is the founder of Medical Technology Education in the Philippines.
• Her husband, Dr. Edrick Hilgert, was the first Medical Internist of the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital (now the Manila Adventist Medical Center).
• The reasons for opening a Medical Technology course in the Philippines were: hospital doctors' need for a laboratory, search for competent laboratory workers, and the requests of Dr. Reuben Manalaysay and Rev. Warren.
• Microbiology is the study of the biology of microscopic organisms like viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, slime molds, and protozoa, testing specimens like surgical biopsies, tissue, wounds, and body fluids.
• Hematology is the science or study of blood and blood diseases, testing specimen like whole blood, and parameters like Complete blood count (CBC), Hemoglobin, RBC indices, and Coagulation tests (PT and aPTT).
• Urinalysis or Clinical microscopy/Urine analysis and Body Fluids involves testing specimens like urine and body fluids (CSF, seminal fluid), testing parameters like physical properties of urine, presence of glucose, protein, bacteria, and WBCs in urine, and semen analysis.
• Immunohematology involves transfusion related testing, testing specimen like whole blood, and parameters like ABO and RhD blood group typing, and Cross matching.
• Serology (Immunology) involves antibody studies, testing specimen like serum, and parameters like HBsAg, Anti-HBs, Rheumatoid factor, and HLA typing.
• Aniline dyes were produced in the middle of the 19th Century, making it possible to stain bacteria and study them better under the microscope.
• Dr. Simon Flexner was the first pathologist of the John Hopkins Hospital Department of Pathology.
• Baron Karl von Humbolt (1815) is known as the "Apothecases Act of 1815", which brought medicine in itself a complete revolution by the development of physical findings before and after death.
• Dr. William Welch (1878) graduated from College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York, studied pathology and bacteriology in Germany, and became the first professor of pathology at John Hopkins University.
• Hermann Fehling (1848) performed the first quantitative test in urine sugar.
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723) invented the first functional microscope and was the first to describe the red blood cells, see protozoa, and classify bacteria according to shape.
• The Insurance Act was approved and accepted in 1911.
• Dr. William Occam (sometime in 1800) found out the diagnosis of his patients by several means, including investigation in the laboratory.
• Dr. Burdon Sunderland (1885) obtained significant results in his works in medicine by applying laboratory methods to his practice of medicine, and initiated the use of laboratory animals for experimentation.
• Dr. James C. Todd (1911) published a laboratory guide entitled, "Manual of Clinical Diagnosis".
• Dr. Douglas started laboratory instruction in 1884, and similar clinical laboratories were established.
• Specimen collecting and processing involves collecting specimen needed for testing, including phlebotomy, and specimen like whole blood and nasal swab.
• The history of Medical Technology (Medical Laboratory Science) can be traced back to Hippocrates, a Greek physician known as the “Father of Medicine”, who described four “humors” or body fluids in men: The blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, and Black Bile.
• Vivian Herrick, a strong believer in the history of Medical Technology, suggests that it can be traced back to 1500 B.C, when intestinal parasites (taenia and ascaris) were mentioned in writings.
• Vivian Herrick also noted that the Ebers Papyrus, an early form of writing, has descriptions of the three stages of hookworm infection.
• Mrs. Willa Helgert-Hedrick had difficulties in working for a complete laboratory (Microbiology, Parasitology, and Histopathology), but Mrs. Antoinette McKelvey, who trained with Dr. Papanicoloau, joined her in putting up the first complete laboratory in the Philippines at the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital.
• Medical Technology practice was introduced by the 26th Medical Infantry of the US 6th Army in Quiricada St., Sta Cruz, Manila during End of WWII.
• The training at the Public Health Laboratory did not last long due to the lack of a complete laboratory.
• Dr. Tirso Briones joined the training program at the Public Health Laboratory.
• Mrs. Willa Helgert-Hedrick prepared the course curriculum and Dr. Reuben Manalaysay and Rev. Warren approved it.
• The Denver Society of Clinical Pathologists were opened in 1936.
• Training of medical technicians started in 1947 under the leadership of Dr. Pio de Roda and Dr. Prudencia C. Sta Ana.
• Mrs. Willa Helgert-Hedrick, an American Medical Practitioner and missionary of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, met with Dr. Reuben Manalaysay, President of the Philippines Union College, and Rev. Warren, President of the North Philippine Union Mission of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Philippines and Director of the Bureau of Private Schools from the Bureau of Education of the Philippines, to discuss the establishment of the first medical technology school in the Philippines.
• The application of the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital and the Philippine Union College to open a MT school was approved by the Bureau of Education (now the Dept of Education, Culture, and Sports) in 1954, leading to a 5-year curriculum leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology.
• Dr. Alfredo Pio de Roda preserved the remains of the laboratory during End of WWII.
• A degree level program for Med Tech was offered in 1931.
• A course bulletin titled “Courses in Medical Technology for Clinical Laboratory Technicians” was issued at the University of Minnesota in 1922.
• In 1940, the US required a two-year collegiate education and a 12-month actual training in the laboratory.
• The American Board of Pathology was established in 1940.