Chad Thompson: Using medical laboratory sciences as a Navy physician

Dr. Chad Thompson, a 2008 graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical Laboratory Sciences (MLS) program, still uses his lab knowledge regularly as a Navy physician based in Okinawa, Japan. 

“I used my lab knowledge all throughout medical school— I still do,” Thompson said. “I would love to get back in the lab a bit too, but it's been a little while since I've been on the bench.” 

At 19, he landed his first job in the lab at Sanford Health in Bemidji as a phlebotomist. It was his first exposure to MLS and it cemented his interest in pursuing a career in it. He said it was an “easy decision” to do so.   

“That’s how I learned about what an MLS is and what they do,” Thompson said. “I thought it was really unique in that if I wanted to do med school, nobody else would have an MLS degree. It's very rare, and it's a great clinical background to work as a physician.”

After he graduated medical school and officially started active duty, Thompson moved to Virginia for residency, then Florida for flight training to become a Navy flight surgeon. For the next two years, he practiced aviation-specific medicine for Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2 in North Carolina. He returned to Virginia to wrap up his ER residency and soon received orders to relocate to Okinawa for his first attending tour as an ER physician.   

“A lot of Navy and Marine Corps medicine is [caring for] healthy 20 year olds, so it's [rare] to get any kind of congestive heart failure, heart attacks, strokes or things like that,” Thompson said. “Out here, I'm attached to 3d Medical Battalion, which is a Marine Corps command, like a repository for trauma.”

In Okinawa, Thompson works in surgical mobile hospitals complete with nurses, surgeons, orthopedics, and ER units, which they are collectively trained to assemble in a few minutes. 

He predominantly works at the only U.S. naval hospital on the island, which keeps him busy. In June, Thompson will take over as department head in the ER. 

“I’m utilizing lab [knowledge] every single day when I order a [complete blood count] and get a differential back. Sometimes I'll draw my own blood or start an IV just to keep my phlebotomy and IV skills up,” he said. “I tip the tips of the tubes very gently so I don't break open the cells, so [other physicians] can see them well…On a regular basis I explain the tube order and why it's important to the corpsmen who are drawing blood.”

Thompson believes MLS has given him a “major edge” in his career as a physician. While technology in the field is always improving, there’s still hands-on microbiology and blood bank work that requires human skill and precision. 

“That attention to detail is necessary and [the MLS program] really emphasizes it, which is super important for the physicians who are making the decisions on the other end,” Thompson said. “If we continue to decrease our quality by not paying attention or not funding this program overall, it's going to trickle down and be more difficult for the physician. MLS is super necessary for the healthcare team.”