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
2008’s Top Ten Lab Stories Lacked Disruptive Impact
CEO SUMMARY: For the first time in recent memory, a year has passed without major tumult or disruptive change in the laboratory industry. Our list of the Top Ten Most Important Stories of 2008 reflects a rather quiet year when compared to most years of this decade. Howeve…
Multi-Modality Diagnosis Heading for Lab Medicine
CEO Summary: At the upcoming Molecular Summit in Philadelphia on February 10-11, 2009, pathologists, molecular imaging experts, and informaticians will share the latest developments on the integration of in vivo (imaging) and in vitro (pathology) diagnost…
LabCorp Talks to Its Clients About Service Enhancements
BOTH NATIONAL LABORATORIES now face a future where growth is not likely to come from a steady stream of sizeable laboratory acquisitions. That makes service enhancements a more important way to protect market share and build client loyalty. At Laboratory Corporation of America, this…
Momentum Continues for Digital Pathology
CEO SUMMARY: Last month, digital imaging in pathology gained additional momentum with the latest FDA clearance. Aperio Technologies, Inc., now has FDA clearance to market its slide scanning system for reading digital progesterone receptor (PR) slides on a computer monitor. Aperio plans to…
December 01, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Having grown to over $1 billion in revenue, Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts, is newest of the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) companies to achieve size and scale. One of its more interesting products is an in-home system that allows …
Medi-Cal Hits Pathologist For $6.4 Million Payment
CEO SUMMARY: Once again, government health bureaucrats are overreaching in their efforts to reduce spending and collect money from any source. A California pathologist has been hit with a Medi-Cal demand for $6.4 million in repayments, simply because he served as laboratory director for t…
Cytology Lab Uses Lean to Simplify Processes
CEO SUMMARY: Like many labs today, the gynecologic cytology laboratory at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics had a pre- and post-analytical work flow with many complex steps. This work flow—heavily influenced by a legacy of previous information systems—was inefficient, conta…
LabCorp And Quest Report 3rd Quarter Financial Performance
CEO Summary: In third quarter earnings reports, both national lab companies posted modest gains in specimen volume, revenue, and net profit. More telling is the relative quiet in the current market for lab testing services. With no obvious opportunities to fuel double-digit rates of growt…
Massachusetts CPOE, MountainStar, PAML, HCA, Ogden Regional Medical Center, HIPAA 5010, LabCorp, Mubadala Health, KLAS
MASSACHUSETTS LAW MANDATES CPOE USE BY HOSPITALS IN 2012 EARLIER THIS YEAR, Massachusetts passed a law that requires all hospitals in the state to implement CPOE (computerized physician order entry) by 2012. The same law requires all hospitals in the state t…
November 10, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
In this country, medical tourism is generally understood to mean someone traveling to a foreign country to access less expensive healthcare. But a handful of U.S. hospitals are ready to make domestic medical tourism a paying proposition—and boost their occupancy rates at the same time. Earlier this…
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.
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