Whenever I tell someone that I am a biology major, the very next thing he or she asks is, “Oh, so are you premed?” or, “So you want to be a doctor?” When I tell the person I’m conversing with that I don’t want to be a doctor but want to go into an allied health position called cytotechnology, I usually get blank stares. The majority of the people I’ve talked to have no idea what allied health is, let alone cytotechnology, but I get it! Until about a year ago, I had no idea all of these professions existed either.

When most of us think in terms of medical careers, we usually think of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists because they’re on the front lines and are determining treatments, filling prescriptions and administering direct care. These professionals are the ones we interact with most of the time, and so they are the first to come to mind.

However, the majority of individuals working in the health care field don’t fall into this “front line” category. Instead, they are running tests, analyzing samples for diseases, helping to combat cancer and much more, all to improve the lives of patients that they may never meet. Positions like these are part of the allied health portion of medicine and play an integral role in patient care, even if they go mostly unnoticed.

So why would I want to join a field that no one is aware of? The answer is a simple one: doctors can’t treat patients as well if the support of allied health workers isn’t there. I like to think of this in terms of a stage production. The doctors and nurses would be the actors on stage in a play; all of the audience members know what the actors’ roles are in the play and might even know all of their names. The allied health people, then, are like the crew members working behind the scenes. Without the crew members doing their jobs to the best of their ability, the actors can’t fully do their jobs.

Even though the type of job I’m after doesn’t always get the limelight, it definitely doesn’t take a back seat. My career path of choice, cytotechnology, involves screening slides of cells under a microscope for signs of cancer, particularly cervical cancer in women. By doing this, I could help hundreds of women get early diagnoses and quick treatment, which I think is a very beautiful thing.