Robert Michel
Until Robert L. Michel came along and founded The Dark Intelligence Group (DIG) two decades ago, the clinical laboratory industry and the anatomic pathology profession lacked a trustworthy source for information about the management and operations of medical laboratories. From its inception in 1995, The Dark Report quickly became the “go to” source of industry intelligence, innovations in lab management, and strategic market analysis.
This excellence in reporting has earned recognition from his peers. For example, twice Michel and The Dark Report have won national awards for best investigative reporting by the Specialty Information Publishers Association. In 2005, the award was for Michel’s coverage about how the anatomic pathology condominium laboratories (pod labs) operated by urologists and gastroenterologists came to be, who operated them, and how these owners marketed the AP condo labs to other physician groups. In 2009, Michel’s award for best investigative reporting resulted from his published interviews with Quest Diagnostics Incorporated when the company admitted that, for a period of 18 months, it had been reported inaccurate Vitamin 25(OH) D results because of problems with its laboratory-developed test methodology. The Dark Report’s story was picked up by The New York Times and was in the national news cycle for several days.
In his role as Editor-in-Chief, Michel brought unique capabilities to DIG and The Dark Report. His management training and diverse business experience—along with his skills as a concise writer and analyst—proved to be a winning combination for readers of The Dark Report. For that reason, Michel’s story has many intriguing elements.
Immediately prior to founding DIG, he had served in several executive positions for Nichols Institute based in Portland, Oregon, and San Juan Capistrano, California. This was during the time that Nichols Institute was an independent public lab company with annual revenues of about $280 million (prior to its acquisition by MetPath, Inc., now Quest Diagnostics Incorporated). He traveled extensively to many of the clinical lab business units owned by Nichols Institute in different regions of the United States and played a role in formulating effective market strategies in response to the emergence of closed-panel HMOs, capitated pricing, and full-risk managed care contracts, among other successful management initiatives.
Prior to his service at Nichols Institute, Michel served at three different Fortune 100 companies. These were Procter & Gamble, Centex Corporation, and Financial Corp. of America. Each was an opportunity to master new management techniques and apply them in different industries. Between these positions, he gained experience as an entrepreneur, having founded a real estate development firm and a general contracting company in the Southeastern United States.
Robert Michel earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played rugby, a sport he participated in for another 22 years. He is a native of California and grew up in Santa Ana.
Articles by Robert Michel
Lab News Briefs
From the Volume XXXI, No. 3 – February 26, 2024 Issue
New York Times Reviews DNA Testing Kits for Its Readers It’s a sign of the times when The New York Times considers it useful to conduct and publish a review of DNA ancestry testing kits to guide readers. AncestryDNA of Lehi, Utah, was picked as “the most eff…
February 26, 2024, Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
From the Volume XXXI, No. 3 – February 26, 2024 Issue
Following an investment of $1.75 million, officials at University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) opened a new lab facility this month that allows it to double the number of medical laboratory technicians it can train, from eight to 10 to as many as 20. In its coverage of the new training …
Who’s For and Against FDA Draft LDT Rule?
From the Volume XXXI, No. 2 – February 5, 2024 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: One analysis determined that 43.2% of the public comments were in support of the proposed LDT rule and 55.2% were in opposition to the rule. More telling, however, is that of the 2,900 comments in support, only 56 were not form letters! In contrast, about 1,300 individual com…
FDA & CMS Issue Letter, Agree on LDT Oversight
From the Volume XXXI, No. 2 – February 5, 2024 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: With the release of a public statement about the oversight of LDTs on Jan. 24, 2024, officials at both the Food and Drug Adminstration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service went on record that both agencies are aligned in the spec…
Feds Bar Elizabeth Holmes from Government Health Programs
From the Volume XXXI, No. 2 – February 5, 2024 Issue
ONCE AGAIN, ELIZABETH HOLMES, THE DISGRACED FORMER CEO OF THERANOS, is in the news. This time it is because the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced in January that Elizabeth Holmes is …
European Lab’s Data Breach Has Lessons for U.S. Clinical Labs
From the Volume XXXI, No. 2 – February 5, 2024 Issue
IN WHAT COULD BE A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR CLINICAL LABORATORIES, a cybersecurity researcher has reported the discovery of a medical laboratory database that publicly exposed COVID-19 test records containing people’s personal data, including their names, passport numbers, appointment details, and test …
Invitae Cuts Costs to Rebuild Oncology Testing Pipeline
From the Volume XXXI, No. 2 – February 5, 2024 Issue
INVITAE CORPORATION, A MEDICAL GENETICS COMPANY that had a $1.34 billion loss during the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2023, recently announced coming actions to cut costs and change operations. The San Francisco-based company sold “certain reproductive health assets including ca…
February 5, 2024, Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
From the Volume XXXI, No. 2 – February 5, 2024 Issue
In Australia last December, a clinical lab company was taken to court by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), which deals with privacy issues. The government agency alleges that Australian Clinical Labs (ACL) had “serious and systemic” fa…
British Columbia Ready for HPV Self-Collection
From the Volume XXXI, Number 1 – January 16, 2024 Issue
CEO SUMMARY: Unacceptable delays of as long as six or seven months in reporting Pap smear test results is triggering a major change in how provincial health authorities screen for cervical cancer. For example, health officials in British Columbia announced that, going forward, cervical ca…
Google, Epic to Help Hospitals Migrate EHR Data to Cloud
From the Volume XXXI, Number 1 – January 16, 2024 Issue
GOOGLE CLOUD OF MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF., inked a new deal with Epic Systems designed to encourage healthcare providers to move electronic health record (EHR) data to the cloud. This relationship will include efforts to step up the use of artificial intelligence (AI) an…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXI, No. 4 – March 18, 2024
An expert attorney analyzes the most recent cases of EKRA violations, showing how many labs could be in violation themselves. Also, a major cyberattack on Change Healthcare, owned by UnitedHealth Group, creates disruptions to providers around the country. Other news includes a look at the worldwide pathologist shortage.
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