Minimum hours required for “Clinical practice/attachment”
At the 52nd MLT Board Meeting held on 5 February 2024, the Board made a decision about the review and amendment of accreditation criteria of programmes, in maintaining the total required hours for training, to amend the minimum hours for clinical practice/attachment in the major four basic areas, namely "Clinical Microbiology & Infection", "Anatomical Pathology", "Chemical Pathology" and "Haematology" to 50 hours each, with the released 200 hours for training institutions to flexibly allocate to new and rapidly evolving medical laboratory science subjects, such as clinical immunology, artificial intelligence, molecular techniques and genetic testing etc., and/or to perform enhanced clinical practice/attachment in the four basic areas as well as in the new areas.
The overall minimal training hours would remain unchanged. The updated training requirement would facilitate training institutions with the flexibility to enable continuous transition/improvement of the curriculum both in existing and new programmes, to better prepare our students for the challenge of quickly evolving medical technologies, while maintaining professional standards. This encourages the diversified development of different institutions while maintaining their professional standards. Under the principle that the overall number of training hours should remain unchanged, it also strengthens the training of students in different medical laboratory-related areas with the objective to ensure that the curriculum keeps abreast of the times and aligns with the latest developments in the medical field.
