While the accelerated innovation and increased access to testing that’s occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic has been critically important to worldwide health care, so too has the crash course in laboratory testing and pathology the general public has received throughout the entirety of the pandemic.

As part of Mayo Clinic’s Neuro-Oncology practice, the Division of Laboratory Genetics and Genomics tests about 50 brain tumors a week, and upwards of 1,500 brain tumors a year from all over the world.

Lisa Brown, quality specialist for Mayo Clinic Laboratories customer service, explains working "behind the scenes" when a client calls Mayo Clinic Laboratories with an inquiry, that call is typically picked up within 20 seconds by an agent from Mayo Laboratory Inquiry (MLI). There are no phone trees or automated menus to wade through before they reach an agent. Agents mind the phones 24/7, 365 days a year.

Guided by a patient-centric philosophy, Mayo Clinic Laboratories has a unique internal structure of quality specialists, coordinators, and engineers who constantly evaluate and improve laboratory operations. This structure supports a host of quality assurance activities.

Each day, some 40 to 45 thousand specimens are shipped to Mayo Clinic Laboratories in Rochester, Minnesota, from hospitals and other health care organizations around the world. And for every sample, there’s a patient to whom it belongs, someone on the other end hoping for answers to a challenging, perhaps even life-threatening, condition.

The last installment of our 50th Anniversary series explores how Mayo Clinic Laboratories pioneered best practices in the area of specimen accessioning and delivery.

In part three of the 50th Anniversary series, Mayo Clinic Laboratories looks further outside the walls of Mayo Clinic. With the belief that the latest in diagnostic testing should be available to any patient, no matter where they are located, the sales force was born.

Part two of the 50th Anniversary series highlights how Mayo Clinic Laboratories has remained focused on our core values through support of Mayo Clinic’s three shields – integrated clinical practice, research, and education.

In 1971, the Regional Laboratory, later to become Mayo Clinic Laboratories, was founded. For the first time in Mayo Clinic’s history, the institution would support the community practice of pathology for outside patients in the region and beyond.

Mayo Clinic’s Advanced Diagnostics Laboratory (ADL) is a visionary space designed to foster innovation. The ADL has a direct impact on patient lives, bringing promising tests and services to patients at Mayo and around the world.

For patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) — the most common leukemia in adults — advanced testing can not only provide valuable information about their disease state, but peace of mind in the face of a progressive, incurable illness. Oftentimes, however, complex molecular and genetic tests to identify biomarker cues about disease trajectory and treatment intolerance are not performed, putting patients at risk for unmet expectations and unsatisfactory outcomes.

Part II of this series shows how a breakthrough discovery about how kidney stones form may open the way for new, unorthodox treatments. The discovery was made possible by joining University of Illinois’ geology and biology forces with Mayo Clinic’s urology and nephrology expertise.