Medical Laboratory Science Students Win Stago Competition

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 7, 2012) – A creative video depicting how blood clots, made by students at the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) program, recently won the national Stago competition which awarded them a hemostasis analyzer worth $10,000 that will benefit the program and students for years to come.
 

The Stago group, a distributor of advanced laboratory testing systems, announced a competition in January that would award a clinical laboratory sciences educational program or clinical site the hemostasis analyzer which provides hands-on training utilizing the latest clot detection technology.
 

“The hemostasis analyzer will provide students with an opportunity to utilize technology currently present in most hospital laboratories today,” said Michelle Butina, assistant professor and program director of Clinical Laboratory Sciences at the UK College of Health Sciences. “This is often not possible due to the high costs of these instruments. The MLS class of 2012 has made it possible for the next decade of students to receive training on a state-of-the-art analyzer.”
 

Stago invited programs to submit a creative description of what winning the analyzer would mean to their clinical program. MLS students from the College of Health Sciences scripted, narrated and filmed a video demonstrating, through interpretive dance, how a blood clot forms (hemostasis).
 

"Even though I did the editing and filming for the video, I would have had nothing to edit without the team of people who came up with the ideas, wrote a script and made it all happen,” said UK student Trudy Colaco. “We all worked together and we are all proud of ourselves for the win."
 

The students' winning video was shown during the 2012 Clinical Laboratory Educators’ Conference in February in Salt Lake City.
 

“The Stago representative did not initially announce the winner, instead he played the winning video,” said Butina. “As the video started and the words ‘Coagulation: An Interpretative Dance’ appeared on the screen I gasped and told my friend that this was the UK MLS video. Immediately, I was an excited and proud program director as 400 of my Medical Laboratory Science educator colleagues were watching our video.” 

Media Contact: Ann Blackford at (859) 323-6442 or ann.blackford@uky.edu