These professionals have gone by several different names over the years, initially referred to as medical technologists, then later called clinical laboratory scientists. In recent years, they underwent a new name change to medical laboratory scientists, which better depicts what these health care professionals do.

Clinical trial opportunities at LSU Health Shreveport include the New Ideas study (www.ideas-study.org/), which enrolls African American and Hispanic patients interested in receiving an amyloid PET scan. The goal is to determine the utility of amyloid PET scans in treating Alzheimer’s disease and is funded by Medicare.