News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups
Hosted by Robert Michel

News, Analysis, Trends, Management Innovations for
Clinical Laboratories and Pathology Groups
Hosted by Robert Michel

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Executive War College 2026 to Spotlight AI, Workforce Solutions, and Financial Strategy for Clinical Labs

Mar 27, 2026 | News From Dark Daily, Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Conferences

Set for April 28–29 in New Orleans, the 31st Annual Executive War College will bring lab leaders together for practical, execution-focused strategies across reimbursement, staffing, compliance, and emerging technologies, with new emphasis on digital pathology and AI-driven operations.

The 31st Annual Executive War College on Diagnostics, Clinical Laboratory, and Pathology Management, April 28–29 in New Orleans, will bring together clinical laboratory leaders to address the most pressing challenges shaping the industry in 2026. This year’s event emphasizes practical, execution-focused strategies across financial performance, workforce development, compliance, and emerging technologies.

A key addition to the 2026 program is the inaugural Executive Forum on Digital Pathology Management, a dedicated session exploring digital workflows, artificial intelligence (AI), and data integration. Designed as an interactive and collaborative experience, the forum will highlight real-world implementation strategies and provide attendees with actionable insights into adopting new technologies.

Recently, the Dark Report highlighted what’s to come at the event. Further, Dark Daily reported on key sessions that attendees won’t want to miss.

Six Major Themes Shaping the Industry

The conference agenda is structured around six strategic themes reflecting the evolving laboratory landscape.

  • Financial strategy sessions will focus on improving reimbursement, strengthening payer relationships, and using analytics to drive revenue growth.
  • Workforce discussions will address staffing shortages, automation, and leadership development.
  • Compliance sessions will offer frameworks for managing regulatory risk and embedding compliance into daily operations.
  • Innovation and technology will play a central role, with case studies demonstrating how laboratories can leverage molecular diagnostics, automation, and informatics to enhance clinical value and operational efficiency.
  • AI will receive particular attention, with sessions examining both its opportunities and challenges, including governance, validation, and return on investment.
  • Additionally, experts will explore trends in mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships, providing guidance on growth, valuation, and long-term positioning.

Healthcare attorney Elizabeth Sullivan of McDonald Hopkins leads a panel discussion at last year’s Executive War College. Sullivan will return for two sessions at the upcoming 2026 conference. (Photo credit: EWC)

2025 Executive War College Highlights

Workforce challenges persist in 2026 and will again be a key theme at the event. The 2025 Executive War College highlighted several innovative approaches to staffing.

For example, the Dark Report reported on a 2025 Executive War College presentation by Jennifer Fralick, vice president anatomic pathology and clinical laboratories at Stanford Health Care. Fralick noted that clinical labs are addressing severe staffing shortages by focusing on internal talent development through career ladders, training programs, and smarter staffing models that shift routine tasks away from licensed professionals. These strategies improve efficiency, reduce burnout, and help labs build sustainable, long-term workforce pipelines instead of relying solely on external hiring. (Fralick is returning to this year’s event to discuss an AI playbook for labs.)

Operational solutions will also be highlighted in the 2026 agenda. Last year, as the Dark Report noted in an article, Shashirekha Shetty, PhD, professor in the Department of Pathology at  Case Western University, presented on how up to 70% of laboratory errors occur in the pre-analytical phase, often due to incorrect test orders, improper sample handling, and poor communication, making it a major risk to patient care and lab efficiency. Shetty emphasized that labs must take full ownership of this phase by implementing standardized workflows, strengthening training and collaboration with clinicians, and embedding pre-analytic quality into their overall quality management systems.

Attendees can expect updated solutions for these challenges and more presented by experts at this year’s Executive War College, which is just a short month away. With nearly 80 sessions and around 150 speakers, the program is designed to equip attendees with practical tools, real-world case studies, and operational playbooks. Laboratory executives will leave with clear, actionable roadmaps to navigate financial pressures, regulatory scrutiny, and rapid technological change.

—Janette Wider

Study Shows Hospitals Can Safely Cut Unnecessary Pre-Surgery Tests

Oct 22, 2025 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory Testing

Reducing wasteful pre-op testing doesn’t just save money, it streamlines lab operations and strengthens value-based care. Here’s how Michigan hospitals achieved lasting change.

For laboratory leaders, efforts to reduce unnecessary pre-operative testing strike at the intersection of clinical quality, efficiency, and resource management. A new University of Michigan–led study offers evidence that hospitals can safely scale back low-value pre-surgical tests without compromising patient outcomes. Laboratories play a crucial role in making that happen. By streamlining test utilization and aligning ordering practices with true clinical need, labs can help health systems cut costs, reduce workload, and focus resources on the diagnostics that truly guide surgical care.

The initiative, dubbed “Right-Sizing Testing Before Elective Surgery (RITE-Size),” demonstrated that hospitals can substantially cut back on unnecessary tests for healthy patients undergoing low-risk surgeries.

“Our results show the importance of understanding what factors influence testing decisions at each hospital, and tailoring a multidimensional intervention to that environment,” said Lesly Dossett, MD, MPH, senior author of the paper and a surgeon and healthcare researcher at U-M Health.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, tracked outcomes at three Michigan hospitals, two community hospitals and one academically affiliated facility, participating in statewide collaborative quality initiatives. Before RITE-Size was implemented, 68% of healthy patients having gallbladder removals, hernia repairs, or breast lumpectomies received at least one unnecessary pre-op test. Six months later, that number had dropped to about 40%, with one hospital achieving a near-zero rate of wasteful testing.

Tailored Interventions Drive Measurable Change

The RITE-Size program was developed through the Michigan Program on Value Enhancement (MPrOVE), a joint initiative of Michigan Medicine and the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. It builds on earlier work by MPrOVE to identify and eliminate low-value testing in elective surgery settings.

Lead author Nicole Mott, MD, MSCR, a National Clinician Scholar at U-M and general surgery resident at the University of Colorado, said the effort’s success came from a “tailored, team-based approach.” Hospitals began by assessing which tests were routinely ordered for low-risk surgeries, then convened meetings with surgical and pre-op leaders to understand local habits and barriers.

The RITE-Size team provided targeted education, coaching, and easy-to-use support materials. Regular data reports helped teams track their progress and maintain engagement.

Tests targeted for reduction included electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, cardiac stress tests, chest X-rays, urinalysis, and common blood panels. These procedures don’t often influence surgical outcomes for otherwise healthy patients.

An invited commentary accompanying the paper highlighted a key factor in RITE-Size’s success: inclusion of pre-operative nurses. “Too often implementation and quality improvement studies fail to recognize both the value and power held by nurses as part of the health system,” said Clifford Sheckter, MD, MS, of Stanford University. “This study is a great example of how understanding and including this factor led to success of their pilot intervention.”

Expansion Signals a Shift Toward Smarter Utilization

According to Dossett, the findings underscore that waste reduction isn’t simply a matter of enforcing new rules but requires understanding each hospital’s culture and workflow.

Lesly Dossett, MD, MPH, senior author of the paper and a surgeon and healthcare researcher at U-M Health noted, “Tailoring interventions to the local environment and engaging all members of the care team—including nurses and front-line staff—is essential. (Photo credit: U-M Health)

The success of the pilot has already led to an expansion: RITE-Size will roll out to 16 additional Michigan hospitals in 2025 and 2026. In addition to the Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) and the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative (MSQC), a third statewide effort—ASPIRE, part of the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group — has joined the project.

The study was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (Grant 5R01HS029306-02). The collaborative quality initiatives involved are supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

As hospitals nationwide continue to face pressure to deliver high-quality, efficient care, the Michigan team’s results provide a roadmap for reducing wasteful practices. “We’ve shown it’s possible to right-size testing—and to keep it that way,” Dossett said.

—Janette Wider

From Regulations to Innovations: Annual Executive War College Convenes in New Orleans

Apr 29, 2024 | International Laboratory News, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Resources, Management & Operations, Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Conferences

29th Conference Features Information on What Clinical Lab Leaders Need to Know About a ‘Perfect Storm’ of New Compliance Challenges

There are signs that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is poised to release the final rule on laboratory developed tests (LDTs)—perhaps even during the 29th annual Executive War College on Diagnostic, Clinical Laboratory, and Pathology Management, which kicks off in New Orleans this week.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concluded its review of the final rule on April 22. Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, and other regulatory experts expect the White House to send the final rule to Congress as early as late April and no later than May 22.

Either way, Tim Stenzel, MD, PhD, former director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics, and other regulatory experts will be on hand at Executive War College (EWC) to walk attendees through what promises to be a “perfect storm of clinical lab and pathology practice regulatory changes.” Stenzel is scheduled to speak about the LDT rule during three sessions with fellow panelists on Day 1.

On Tuesday morning, Lâle White, executive chair and CEO of San Diego’s XiFin, Inc., will present a keynote on new regulations and diagnostics players that are “poised to reshape lab testing.” Her presentation is followed by a general session on Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) regulations featuring Salerno Reynolds, PhD., acting director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Center for Laboratory Systems and Response.

Robert Michel, Editor-in-Chief of The Dark Report will wrap day one with a general session on the regulatory trifecta coming soon to all labs, from LDT to CLIA to private payers’ policies for genetic claims.


Innovation in the spotlight

“It’s a rich mix of expert speakers, lab leaders who are doing innovative things in their own organizations, along with the consultants and the lab vendors who are pushing the front edge of laboratory management, operations, and clinical service delivery,” says Michel, who each year creates the agenda for EWC.

Several sessions, master classes, and speakers will look to the future with discussions about how healthcare data drives innovations in diagnostics and patient care, digital pathology adoption around the world, and hot topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and precision medicine.

Panels offer a variety of viewpoints

“One valuable benefit of participating at the Executive War College is the various panel discussions,” Michel says. “Each panel brings together national experts in a specific area of the laboratory profession. As an example, our lab legal panel this year brings together four prominent and experienced attorneys who share opinions, insights, and commentary about relevant issues in compliance, regulations, and contractual issues with health plans and others.”

This allows attendees to experience a breadth of opinions from multiple respected experts in this area, he adds.

For example, a digital pathology panel will bring together representatives from labs, service providers, and the consultants that are helping labs implement digital pathology. The session will be especially helpful to labs that are deciding when to acquire digital pathology tools and how to deploy them effectively to improve diagnostic accuracy, Michel says.

And a managed care panel will feature executives from some of the nation’s biggest health plans—the ones that sit on the other side of the table from labs—to provide insights and guidance on how labs can work more effectively with them.

Networking opportunities abound

The event is about much more than politics and policy, however. There’s also a distinct social aspect.

“This is a friendly tribe,” Vicki DiFrancesco, a US HealthTek advisory board member who first attended EWC more than two decades ago, wrote in a recent post.

“Everyone is welcome, and everyone appreciates the camaraderie, so don’t be shy about going up and introducing yourself to someone. The quality of the crowd is top-notch, yet I’ve always experienced a willingness for those of us who have been to this rodeo to always be welcoming,” she notes.

Michel agrees. “One of the special benefits of participation at the EWC is the superb networking interactions and collaboration that takes place,” he says.

 “From the first moments that attendees walk into our opening reception on Monday night until the close of the optional workshops on Thursday, one can see a rich exchange happening amongst circles of attendees. Introductions are being made. Connections are developing into business opportunities. The sum of an attendee’s experience at the Executive War College is to gain as much knowledge from the networking and collaboration as they do from the sessions.”

–Gienna Shaw

Despite Passage of New Law on CLIA enforcement, Ohio State University Settles with CMS Agrees to Pay $268,000, and Names New Clinical Laboratory Medical Director

Feb 20, 2013 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Compliance, Legal, and Malpractice, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology

Medical laboratory continues to operate, retains its CLIA certificate, and maintains that the PT violations at heart of CMS case were inadvertent

One nationally prominent clinical laboratory organization closed its chapter in the ongoing story of CLIA enforcement of the regulations governing the inadvertent referral of proficiency testing specimens. But this chapter ended with an unexpected twist for the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC), which was given severe sanctions by officials of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), despite recent enactment of a new federal law on the subject of enforcement of CLIA proficiency testing errors.

The settlement between OSUWMC and CMS was announced on January 16. It calls for OSUWMC to:

  • Appoint a new medical director for the clinical laboratory,
  • Pay $268,000, and
  • Provide additional training to the medical laboratory staff in proficiency testing (PT).

New Medical Director Named at OSUWMC’s Clinical Laboratory

OSU named Daniel Sedmak, M.D., to the position of medical director of the clinical laboratory, as part of this resolution with federal officials who administer the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). Sedmak is currently the Chair of the OSU College of Medicine, Department of Pathology and a professor of pathology.

Ohio-state-medical-center-photo

Last month, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center issued a press release stating that it had resolved pending sanctions assessed against its clinical laboratory by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for violations of CLIA requirements, including the inadvertent referral of proficiency testing specimens. (Photo by Wikipedia.com.)

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TEST Act Signed By President Obama, Provides Regulators Discretion When Clinical Laboratories Mistakenly Violate CLIA PT Requirements

Dec 10, 2012 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology

Pathologists will welcome this law, which provides more latitude for federal regulators should a medical laboratory inadvertently refer a proficiency testing specimen

Last Tuesday, the clinical laboratory testing industry gained an important measure of regulatory relief after President Obama signed into law the Taking Essential Steps for Testing (TEST) Act of 2012. This law removes severe penalties for medical laboratories that inadvertently violate proficiency testing (PT)  requirements.

More specifically, the language of the TEST Act provides guidance to federal regulators to resolve an issue concerning the inadvertent referral of PT specimens as defined by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) statute of 1988. (See The Dark Report “Congress May Respond to Tough CLIA PT Penalties,” August 6, 2012.) (more…)

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