HONOLULU -- Two of Hawaii's largest clinical testing companies on Tuesday pitched in to save the only professional training program in the field of medical technology in the state.

State budget cuts threatened to eliminate the medical technology training program at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine. The school stopped taking new students into the program.

Diagnostic Laboratory Services and Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii donated more than $100,000 to the program in a ceremony on Tuesday.

Students spend their first two years at Kapiolani Community College's medical lab technician program. They can then spend another two years to earn a Bachelor of Science medical technology degree at JABSOM.

UH officials said that the donations will ensure that there will be a continuous flow of trained technicians to work in Hawaii's medical technology field.