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 Restructuring Moves Ahead in United Kingdom and Ireland
IT IS TOUGH TIMES FINANCIALLY for pathology and clinical laboratories in the British Isles. In both the nations of the United Kingdom and Ireland, the budget woes of the respective national governments are driving major changes in the organization and delivery of laboratory testing services. In the …
June 4, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
It’s a milestone on the path to personalized medicine and an example of how integrated health informatics will give clinicians real-time access to unlimited amounts of medical data. The 1000 Genomes Project announced in recent months that “the world’s largest set of data on hum…
Executive War College Looks at Threats to Lab Industry
CEO SUMMARY: Taken collectively, the speakers at the opening session of the 17th Annual Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management had a powerful message to the nearly 700 attendees. After years of slow movement, a rapid transformation of the American healthcare system is about…
Patient Service Center Theft Highlights Labs’ Need to Protect Paper Records
LABS PUT SO MUCH EFFORT INTO SECURING electronic health records, that it’s easy to overlook the need to protect paper records. St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California, learned this lesson the hard way recently when thieves stole more than 700 paper re…
May 14, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Mayo Clinic is taking steps to more fully integrate its laboratory informatics. In a press release dated April 27, 2012, it stated that it had completed a multi- year implementation of a new laboratory information system (LIS). The new LIS supports both the Department of Laboratory M…
MD Self-Referral Issues Target of Utilization Study
CEO SUMMARY: When it comes to the in-office ancillary service (IOAS) exception to physician self-referral, the issue of in-clinic pathology services has become a hot potato. Publication in Health Affairs of a study of urologists’ self-referral of their patients for anatomic pathology se…
Medicare Extends 5010 Implementation for a Second Time, Effective July 1, 2012
FACED WITH THE FACT that many payers were not ready to implement the 5010 standard under the Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act (HIPAA), on March 15, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a second delay in enforcement of the standard…
Top 10 IT Trends Send Message For Labs & Pathology Groups
CEO SUMMARY: Healthcare’s shift away from fee-for-service medicine and toward integrated clinical care is widely recognized. However, few lab administrators and pathologists are aware of the even faster transformation underway in healthcare informatics. Presented here are the “Top 10 …
Grand River Hospital, Psyche Systems, Siemens Healthcare, Bio-Rad, Home Test Direct
HOSPITAL LAB CLOSED, STAFF EVACUATED AFTER LAB SPECIMEN SPILL IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT A HOSPITAL LABORATORY needs to be closed and decontaminated following a lab accident. Yet that is what happened on April 2 at 495-bed Grand River Hospital in Kitchner, Ontari…
April 23, 2012 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
“Innovator of the Year” honors were recently bestowed on Robin Felder, Ph.D., who is Professor of Pathology and Associate Director of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville. Felder was selected as the winner of the 2012 Edlich-Hen…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 14 – October 6, 2025
The Dark Report examines increasing healthcare costs for employers and how clinical labs can help those employers. Also, an in-depth case study shows how one hospital system regained its outreach program after originally ceding it to a national lab company, adding millions to the system’s bottom line.
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