Department of Laboratory Medicine
The goal of the Department of Laboratory Medicine is to provide reliable and timely laboratory services, assist providers in appropriate use of laboratory testing, and to improve pediatric care and laboratory testing through research.
The staff in the Department of Laboratory Medicine performs 3 million tests each year, including 2.7 million in the Core Laboratory (chemistry and hematology) and 280,000 in the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory.
The staff in the Transfusion Medicine program performs 16,000 transfusions and 1,200 therapeutic apheresis procedures each year, and the blood donor center collects 15,000 whole blood donations. We perform multiple tests each day, including mass spectrometry, atomic adsorption, full coagulation and functional platelet studies, microbial identification by MALDI-TOF MS, and quantitative viral nucleic acid assays. The Transfusion Medicine program includes a donor center, apheresis program, and blood bank.
We perform laboratory testing in multiple locations, including the central laboratory, in the near-patient laboratories for surgical patients, and in the Blood Bank on the Boston Children's Hospital main campus. We provide phlebotomy services provided for outpatients and inpatients at the hospital and at all Boston Children’s satellite sites.
Our expertise in laboratory medicine
One or more board-certified doctoral directors or consultants leads each area of the department. Our directors specialize in clinical chemistry, biochemical genetics, hematology, microbiology, or transfusion medicine. Certified medical technologists, clinical technologists, or medical laboratory technicians perform the testing.
Our services
- Blood Bank/Transfusion Medicine
- Blood Donor Center
- Apheresis
- Clinical Chemistry
- Toxicology and drug monitoring
- Genetic metabolism
- Hematology
- Specialized Coagulation
- Flow Cytometry
- Microbiology
- Molecular Microbiology
- Immunology
- Point-of-Care Testing
- Inpatient and Outpatient Phlebotomy Services
