Interview with Karen Karni

Abstract

Dr. Karen Karni begins her interview with an overview of her educational history and how she came to be director of the medical technology program at the University of Minnesota. She then, in more detail, discusses the following: her interest in medical technology; her time as an undergraduate student at the University; generalist and specialty work in medical technology; her work in Bar Harbor, Maine and Virginia, Minnesota; and her time at State University of New York at Buffalo. In reviewing her time at the University of Minnesota in the medical technology program, Dr. Karni covers the following topics: working with Verna Rausch; changes in the curriculum; her doctoral research and certification exams for laboratory personnel; the hierarchy within which laboratory personnel work; the culture of the Medical School and the Rajender Consent Decree; Ellis Benson’s tenure as chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; Dave Brown’s tenure as chair; Leo Furcht as chair; her work with the Minnesota Society for Medical Technology; relationships among the divisions within the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; her appointment and tenure as director of the medical technology program; her work through Project Hope and the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences; the changing demography of students within the medical technology program; and the tenures of several vice presidents of the Academic Health Center. She goes on to consider changes in medical technology more broadly, evolving requirements for tenure, simulation in medical technology education, and automation in the field. She concludes with thoughts on how the University’s medical technology program fits in the history of laboratory science.