ASCP Certificate Programs

LMU Fundamentals

Lab Management University (LMU) is a self-paced certificate program that improves competency in laboratory management, with customizable options for all skill levels. 

The customizable LMU Fundamentals program lets you choose 25 out of 30+ on-demand courses covering all key management concepts. Topics range from essential knowledge to more specialized and advanced topics.

Upon completion, you will earn your certificate in laboratory management and be fully qualified to move on to LMU Advanced.

You have up to three years from date of purchase to complete the program and earn your certificate.

Course Examples

Hone your skills covering five core competencies and expand your technical understanding in key areas.

• Personnel Management
  
  • Identify training and certification needed for medical laboratory sciences professionals
  • Diagnose performance problems and implement coaching best practices
  • Understand delegation and effective communication skills
  • Apply modern elements of management theory
  • Learn essential elements for strategic planning
  • Apply influence strategies to promote patient safety and improve patient outcomes
• Operations
  
  • Learn about the CLSI Quality Management System (QMS) framework for the laboratory
  • Recognize the differences between implementing a commercially available and a laboratory-developed test
  • Understand competency assessment requirements for testing personnel from a regulatory and accreditation agency (e.g. CAP) perspective
• Financial Management
  
  • Identify key strategies in pathology revenue cycle management
  • Discuss the importance of budget preparation in the context of operational planning.
  • Prepare and justify a budget for a hospital or clinical laboratory
• Informatics
  • Explore Digital Pathology
  • Review Tips for working with inspectors
  • Understand how different LIS systems affect your laboratory
• Compliance
  • List the basic elements of a model compliance plan
  • Learn the main OSHA regulations that direct a laboratory safety program
  • Understand how a Quality Management system contributes to patient safety 

LMU Advanced

The LMU Advanced program offers 10 courses on advanced laboratory management topics.

Upon completion, you will also earn your advanced certificate in laboratory management.

You have up to three years from date of purchase to complete the program and earn your certificate.

Course Examples

Hone your skills covering five core competencies and expand your technical understanding in key areas.

• Personnel Management
  
  • Develop effective mentoring skills for all technical and administrative levels within your organization
• Operations
  
  • Apply workflow analysis methods to improve lab processes
• Financial Management
  
  • Review the use of the strategic planning process in budget preparation
• Informatics
  
  • Understand how to design, validate, and implement auto-verification rules using CLSI guidelines
• Compliance
  
  • Learn to develop an individualized quality control plan 

Overview

ASCP is proud to collaborate with the American Pathology Foundation (APF) to develop and deliver a variety of courses to further your skills and knowledge in laboratory management. Through these comprehensive education resources you can achieve your career goals and improve the performance of your lab.

Courses

Created for pathologists, residents and laboratory professionals, LMU is a customizable program for individuals planning on moving into management positions, or who are in the management realm and want to bolster their experience. Discover why LMU has already grown to over 12,000 participants worldwide.

LMU Contemporary Issues

Lab Management University (LMU) Contemporary Issues is a series of courses designed to keep lab managers and supervisors informed on the latest critical information affecting medical laboratory operations and management.

Course Examples

This new annual series consists of five courses on a range of timely topics in laboratory management. Two sets of LMU Contemporary Issues are now available. Each course provides 1 CME credit hour, for a total of 5 CME credits per set. After completing the learning module, participants must pass a short post-test with a score of 80% or better. After completing the course and the post-test, the transcript is immediately available for download.

LMU Contemporary Issues: Accreditation, Regulation and Workforce

Includes these five courses:

Introduction to Medical Coding

Recognizing the Differences between Accreditation Providers: CLIA, CAP, & Joint Commission

Improving Efficiency to Respond to Laboratory Workforce Shortage

Employee Satisfaction and Retention: Best Practices for Retaining the Clinical Laboratory Workforce

Hospital Regulators & Accreditors: Impact on the Laboratory

LMU Contemporary Issues: New Technologies and Distanced Team Management

Includes these five courses:

Digital Pathology and Whole Slide Imaging

How to Bring in a New Instrument 101

Hiring, Onboarding and Retention: Strategies geared towards finding and keeping employees who are the right fit.

Managing Teams in Geographically Distanced Locations

Managing Resources Across Geographically Distanced Locations

LMU Contemporary Issues: Lab Lessons and Updates

Includes these five courses:

Models for Continuing Education in the Laboratory Environment

Is Your Next Hire an Artificial Intelligence?

Moving From the Bench to a Laboratory Leadership Position: Lessons Learned

New for 2022: Pathology Coding Changes, Rules Updates, and Current Legal Issues

Pandemic Lessons: Utilizing Laboratory Staff in Novel Ways

Overview

University of Path Informatics (UPI) is a joint effort between the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) and the Association for Pathology Informatics (API).  The UPI Certificate Program consists of 20 custom courses: 12 core and 8 elective course are required to earn the certificate.

University of Pathology Informatics (UPI) is a case-based program, where you act as the project leader developing a pathology informatics needs assessment for a laboratory. It focuses on four essential laboratory informatics competencies:

• Information Fundamentals
• Information Systems
• Workflow & Processes
• And Governance & Management

Requirements for Earning a Certificate

You are required to complete 20 courses across four laboratory informatics competencies, to earn the UPI Certificate of Completion. These include courses such as: 

• Introduction to Pathology Informatics
• Introduction to Information Systems
• Laboratory Hardware & Software 
• Patient & Asset Identification Tracking Tracking Systems for Workflow

All courses are offered online: 

• Twelve core courses, modules 1-12, are required. 
• In addition, you must also take eight additional elective courses. 
• Choose electives appropriate for your individual skill needs to meet the 20-course requirement. 
• To receive credit for courses, you must pass an online quiz with a score of 80% or better in three or less attempts.
• You have up to three years from date of purchase to complete the program and earn your certificate.

Course Components 

All online instructional strategies are approximately 90 minutes and consist of: 

• A pre-reading assignment
• An engaging online multimedia activity
• Knowledge checks
• Case studies
• And the downloadable eBook Pathology Informatics: Theory & Practice

Each course also includes a post-test of five to 10 questions. You are allowed three attempts to take the test and need a score of 80% or higher. You can earn 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, CMLE, or CME credits for each course completed.

UPI Program & Course Descriptions

Program Schedule

Typically, UPI can be accessed until requirements are met within a three-year period. The average participant usually takes approximately six-months to a year to complete the informatics certificate program.

How to Complete UPI

The curriculum focuses on the four laboratory informatics competencies: Information Fundamentals, Information Systems, Workflow & Processes, and Governance & Management. UPI participants also have access to a wide variety of bonus materials, including Pathology Informatics: Theory & Practice (eBook).

Course Prerequisite

The first module, Welcome to UPI Certificate & Needs Analysis, focuses on the steps involved in developing a needs analysis and executive briefing for informatics tools and systems for the laboratory. This module also introduces the University of Pathology Informatics Certificate of Completion program, including details about its instructional approach, curriculum, and requirements for completion.  Please complete this course first before moving on to others.

Comprehensive Leadership Training for the Laboratory Medicine Team

The Leadership Institute is the lab team’s complete resource for practical, customizable leadership training developed to enhance pathologists’ and laboratory professionals’ effectiveness in the lab.

Facilitated by ASCP’s organizational and leadership experts, the Leadership Institute teaches participants to adapt their behavior, communication skills, and leadership styles to be effective in a variety of workplace situations.

ASCP Leadership Institute Scholarship

Every year, a laboratory professional and a pathologist are selected to receive a scholarship for the Leadership Institute Certificate Program and five hours of one-on-one coaching from ASCP’s team of leadership experts. Learn more about how to apply for this scholarship, which is supported by the ASCP Foundation, at the link below.

Learn More

Leadership Certificate Program

Hone your leadership skills at your own pace with the Leadership Institute’s Leadership Certificate program. With 18 on-demand courses that offer CME/CMLE credit, the certificate program provides practical leadership skills to advance your career.

Strengthen Your Skills, Advance Your Career

Gain insight into your own leadership behavior and identify areas for improvement by taking the pre-course self-assessment included with each course. Self-assessments can be downloaded for future reference. You will earn up to 1.75 CME/CMLE credits per course, as all courses are accredited through the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and can be completed with approximately one to two hours of work.

Upon completion of nine courses, you can download the certificate of completion from your dashboard.

Download the Leadership Institute Certificate Program Syllabus

Course Examples

These courses will teach different communication and conflict skills, leadership styles, and how to become more situationally effective through courses such as:

• Conflict Prevention and Resolution Discovering
• Your Own Diversity
• Groupthink and the Abilene Paradox
• Listening with a Purpose
• Organizational Savvy
• Reacting to Change
• Stress Analysis and Coping Resources
• Team Dynamics
• Time Mastery
• Behavioral-Based Interviewing and Onboarding
• Time and Priority Techniques
• Performance Coaching
• Burnout

On-Site Facilitation

Enhance the effectiveness of you and your laboratory staff by booking on-site facilitation of a Leadership Institute course your institution. ASCP’s organizational and leadership experts will teach practical leadership skills in an interactive environment, and attendees will gain tools for success while earning CME/CMLE credit.

Customize Courses for Your Laboratory’s Needs

• Choose from a variety of courses designed to enhance participants’ effectiveness in the lab.
• Enjoy enhanced opportunities for skill building and team building offered by in-person discussion with peers and facilitation by ASCP’s organizational and leadership experts.
• Give your team insight into their own leadership behavior and identify areas for improvement through self-assessments included with each course.
• Offer your team members up to 1.75 CME/CMLE credits per course, as all courses are accredited through the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).
• Provide your team with the opportunity to apply courses offered via on-site facilitation towards completion of the Leadership Certificate program.
• Tailor courses to your needs and wants, focusing on how you and your team can apply the skills you have learned.

Download the Leadership Institute Catalog

Personal Coaching

Take your career to the next level with one-on-one leadership coaching from ASCP’s organizational and leadership experts. Receive in-person or telephone training and guidance catered specifically to your professional needs and goals and tailored to your schedule.

Receive Customized Training

• Accelerate your learning by working one-on-one with one of ASCP’s organizational and leadership experts.
• Tackle a specific leadership challenge or strengthen a particular skill.
• Adapt your coaching experience to fit your schedule through in-person or telephone sessions.
• Gain access to the Leadership Certificate program with 12 on-demand courses that offer CME/CMLE credit and include self-assessments.