Labs Are Vital™ Announces Winners of 2009 National Video Contest to Highlight Careers in Lab Sciences

Labs Are Vital, Channel One Network competition reaches 2.2 million high school students.

Chicago — Labs Are Vital™ today announced that a 2009 high school graduate from northern California, Kelly Peterson, is the grand prize winner of its national video contest. High school students around the country submitted their views on video about why careers in the clinical lab sciences are vital.

Labs Are Vital is a global program sponsored by Abbott (NYSE: ABT) to increase awareness about clinical laboratory sciences and career opportunities in this important field. In collaboration with Channel One Network, Michigan State University, Diagnostics Detectives, America’s Blood Centers and My Blood Your Blood Programs, Labs are Vital solicited submissions for the contest on the ChannelOne.com/LabsAreVital Web page. Content submissions were judged by an independent panel representing the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP), Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS).

Peterson was awarded $2,500 by ASCP for her first-place video.Her production aired on the Channel One network, reaching more than 2.2 million students in high school classrooms around the country with a message about the importance of laboratories and careers in lab sciences.Labs Are Vital also awarded two runner-up prizes of $1,000 (funded by APHL and ASCLS) to Megan Dougherty, a high school freshman from eastern Oklahoma; and to a biology class at East Oktibbeha County High School in Crawford, Miss.

“The video contest demonstrates that high school science students are beginning to understand the importance of careers in clinical laboratory sciences,” said Denise Brunner, Abbott’s Labs Are Vital program manager. “We hope many will answer the call and help alleviate the global shortage of qualified laboratory scientists and technicians.”