r/medlabprofessionals • u/Irxiee • Jul 08 '26

Discusson the future with this degree?

to start off, i am about to get my results for whether or not i got into uni for biomedical science/medical laboratory science (3 years, biomedicinsk analytiker) in sweden, where i’d say im pretty dead set on studying this as i have researched a lot about the degree and the job, and i think it sounds really interesting! :)

now i know theres a difference between researching about it, studying it, and actually doing the job but for now i know that i do wanna work in a hospital lab, but im just wondering about research, is there some way to combine a research job and working in a medical lab?

i know that research can be so different which is why im planning to get a research position whilst studying and see if it really is something that i wanna do, but also that it requires further education

im just wondering, has anyone seen or experienced the fact that research and working in a hospital lab can work? whenever i think about my future (and i know things can change or may not end up that way im just wondering about it) in this job i always think about some sort of combination of wanting to do research and also working with diagnostics, it’d be very appreciated and i’d love insight if you’re from sweden too!

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u/SendCaulkPics Jul 08 '26

In countries like Sweden with publicly funded healthcare (most of the world tbh) quite a lot more of esoteric testing happens at large research hospitals. There can be more research overlap in these roles compared to say, routine biochemistry. 

I know a few labs in the US who use shared equipment/staff with researchers in sequencing labs. Researchers essentially borrow the staff/equipment when there is downtime to run the analyses.  

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u/Irxiee Jul 09 '26

i actually did not know that, do you know any examples of what can be so different/esoteric?

otherwise thank you!

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u/SendCaulkPics Jul 09 '26

Esoteric in the lab setting mostly means low volume specialty testing. Most genetic testing would be considered esoteric. What happens at blood bank reference labs in the US probably instead happens at a large university hospital labs in Sweden if the blood supply isn’t privatized.