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
“November 18, 2002 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
Antitrust regulators are signaling displeasure about a growing number of business activities in healthcare. Timothy Muris, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), was in Chicago on November 7 to address a group of lawyers and business people. He told them that the FTC “cont…
Hospitals in Michigan Build Unique Shared Lab
CEO SUMMARY: This operational model for a collaborative regional laboratory organization makes “profit” irrelevant. Serving 30 hospitals in four Midwestern states, Michigan Co-Tenancy Laboratories is consistently expanding lab testing services, lowering costs, and emphasizing the labo…
MT/MLT Training Insights From Calif. University
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory administrators from 15 San Francisco Bay Area hospitals recently approached their CEOs and requested a five-year funding commitment of $1.5 million to train and expand the supply of CLSs and MTs. One key element in this effort was the enthusiastic support of those …
Major Changes at Dade Behring Soon to Be Visible In Lab Market
Its recent financial restructuring now complete, Dade Behring prepares a “brand building” campaign CEO SUMMARY: Dade Behring is poised to become a tough and high-profile competitor in the laboratory diagnostics marketplace. Earlier this month,…
HCA, Tenet , Specialty Labs
HCA WANTS TO BUY HEALTH MIDWEST FOR $1.25 BILLION FOR-PROFIT HOSPITAL BEHEMOTH HCA Inc. announced an agreement in principal to acquire Health Midwest, a 14-hospital system based in Kansas City, Missouri. Subject to further negotiations and due diligence, H…
Disease Management Relies On Lab Testing
CEO SUMMARY: Predictions are that 30% of large corporations will offer disease management programs for their employees by the end of next year. Disease management seems to be the next form of managed care, where prevention and early detection are the primary goals. Laboratories should be …
“October 28, 2002 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
IBM continues to muscle its way into healthcare informatics using the concept of “grid computing.” It’s already working with the University of Pennsylvania to create a computer network and data repository that will store mammograms and allow a patient’s past …
New Efforts to Boost Supply of MTs & MLTs
CEO SUMMARY: Most laboratorians are acutely aware that the nation’s pool of trained medical technicians and medical technologists is shrinking even as growing numbers of baby-boomer lab techs approach retirement. Meanwhile, training programs are feeding inadequate numbers of new med tec…
Understanding Demographics Of Med Tech Labor Supply
WHILE THERE’S BEEN PLENTY of publicity about the growing shortage of medical technologists (MT) and medical laboratory technicians (MLT), less attention has been paid to the factors which brought about this situation. For example, a careful study of ASCP (American Society of Clinical Patho…
San Fran Bay Hospitals Jointly Fund MT Training
CEO SUMMARY: Laboratory administrators in 15 Bay-area hospitals created their own plan to expand the available pool of trained med techs. Using a detailed analysis of the demographics of the problem, along with a financial analysis of non-action, they convinced CEOs of 15 hospitals to inv…
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.
See the full table of contentsHow Much Laboratory Business Intelligence Have You Missed?
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