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
New Lab Player Launches In Breast Cancer Market
CEO SUMMARY: Having opened its CLIA-licensed laboratory in Huntington Beach, California, Agendia, Inc., becomes the newest competitor to enter the market for breast cancer testing. Its proprietary assay looks at 70 genes to assess the risk of recurrence. The company expects to co…
August 10, 2009 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Last week, the pathology profession got a new professional group. It is the Digital Pathology Association (DPA) and it was formed by several companies offering digital pathology systems and services. DPA’s founders say it will support digital pathology education initiatives, define…
All-Star Vitamin D Panel Looks at Lab Challenges
CEO SUMMARY: Need proof that the issues surrounding today’s Vitamin 25(OH) D are of keen interest to laboratory professionals? Not only did the EXECUTIVE WAR COLLEGE’S in depth sessions on Vitamin D draw a large audience and enthusiastic participation by attendees, but within…
UMass Lab’s Experience With Vitamin D Methods
CEO SUMMARY: As it developed a home brew mass spec assay for Vitamin 25(OH) D to meet the request of some client physicians, the laboratory at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center quickly recognized several challenges. First, there were fundamental differences in the nu…
Lab M&A Deals in June Show Market Direction
CEO SUMMARY: Despite a dismal economy, the month of June spawned two interesting merger/acquisition transactions in the lab testing industry. In one case, a blood brother gobbled up a specialty diagnostics company. In another transaction, two cross-town neighbors in Kansas City m…
New Flu Strain Expected In Upcoming Flu Season
CEO SUMMARY: Public health labs continue to monitor for new cases of the A/Novel H1N1 flu, while preparing for what may be a difficult flu season this fall. Having coped with a 10-fold increase in testing volume, public health labs are assessing the lessons learned from the April…
Elevating Lab Testing At Policymaking Table
CEO SUMMARY: With the help of contributing clinical laboratories, the CDC has launched an ambitious effort to gather data, apply evidence review methods used in clinical studies, then identify and publish best practices in laboratory medicine. The goal is to advance the value of …
July 20, 2009 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Larry Siedlick resigned as CEO of Sunrise Medical Laboratories in Hauppauge, New York, effective June 30. It was 2007 when Siedlick and partner Pat Lanza sold their interest in the laboratory they founded back in 1972 to Sonic Healthcare, Ltd. Siedlick tells THE DARK…
New Phlebotomist Policy Achieves Zero Error Rate
CEO SUMMARY: It’s not often when a hospital laboratory can use a patient safety project to achieve zero defects for more than one year. But that’s what happened at Desert View Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, when it went an entire year with no contaminants in draws for blood c…
DARK REPORT and Editor Michel Earn National Reporting Award
FOR THE SECOND TIME in recent years, Editor Robert L. Michel and THE DARK REPORT have won a national award for “Best Investigative Reporting.” In Washington, DC, last month, at the Specialized Information Publishers Association (SIPA) annual conference, Editor Michel learned tha…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 13 – September 15, 2025
The Dark Report examines a new bill that would reform PAMA and avoid reimbursement rate cuts scheduled for January 2026. Clinical laboratory leaders are urged to make their voices heard in Congress. Also, an expert describes how labs can fix pre-analytical errors and avoid disaster.
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