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
March 30, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Should consumers be allowed to collect their own specimens for a COVID-19 test? At least five companies announced plans in mid-March to sell COVID-19 tests directly to consumers and have them collect their specimens at home, then return the samples to the the labs doing the testing. This s…
Labs in Italy Moved Fast to Develop COVID-19 Tests
Part One in a Series ITALY HAS ONE OF THE WORLD’S SEVEREST OUTBREAKS OF COVID-19 INFECTIONS, based on the number of cases and the mortality rate. In response, clinical laboratories there moved quickly to launch laboratory-developed tests and to increase the volume of COVID-19…
This Coronavirus Outbreak Will Change Lab Industry
CEO SUMMARY: COVID-19 is causing a level of global disruption not seen since the influenza outbreak of 1918. This new infectious disease exposes flaws in the strategies and planning of public health officials and governments in the United States and abroad. In this country…
March 9, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Coronavirus, more specifically, the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, currently dominates global news. This is the third novel strain of coronavirus to emerge as a threat to human health in the past two decades. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was identifie…
February 17, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
Last month, Tech-Crunch reported that a data breach at Laboratory Corporation of America had exposed the protected health information (PHI) of thousands of patients. TechCrunch published its findings on Jan. 28, 2020. It wrote, “This latest secu…
January 27, 2020 Intelligence: Late-Breaking Lab News
In recent weeks, the Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal in a case which challenged a lab company’s patent on a clinical laboratory test. On Jan. 13, the justices rejected the appeal made by Athena Diagnostics, a division of Quest Diagnostics. In an earlie…
2019’s Top 10 Lab Stories Reveal Major Laboratory Industry Trends
This is an excerpt of a 3,163-word article in the Dec. 16, 2019 issue of THE DARK REPORT (TDR). The full article is available to members of The Dark Intelligence Group. CEO SUMMARY: There was plenty of bad news in 2019 for clinical labs and pathology groups. Yet lurking inside this new…
November 25 2019 intelligence late breaking lab news
Medicare lab test price cuts mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) are eroding the finances of urology groups that do in-office clinical laboratory testing. In the November issue of Urology Times, urologist Robert A. Dowling, MD, wrote a news story that identified the cut…
December 16, 2019 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
John M. Mattsen, III, MD, one of the founders of ARUP Laboratories of Salt Lake City, died on November 9, at the age of 86. As a pathologist and an executive leader, he was at the forefront of laboratory medicine for many decades. A graduate of Brigham Young University…
January 6, 2020 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News
On Dec. 19, Congress passed a year-end spending bill that included the Laboratory Access for Beneficiaries (LAB) Act. The bill went to the President for his signature. The bill mandates that the federal Centers or Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) delay by one year having labs rep…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 10 – July 14, 2025
This issue is strong on different flavors of enforcement that clinical laboratories, whether they want to or not, will need to contend with. Lab stakeholders provide insights that medical labs need to brace for more action to counter pending test reimbursement rate cuts under PAMA. Also, this issue provides the legal and regulatory landscape for clinical labs’ use of AI and how it evolves with the technology. AI is creating legal uncertainty for clinical labs, especially around data privacy and FDA oversight of AI tools in diagnostics.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
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