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
Needless Mastectomy Draws National Attention
CEO SUMMARY: This widely-reported case of misdiagnosis at an Allina hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota is a powerful reminder to pathology practices and clinical laboratories that breakdowns in medical quality will draw increasing attention and scrutiny. Both the patient and the community ar…
LabCorp Starts Tinkering With DIANON Systems
CEO SUMMARY: For almost two decades, DIANON Systems supported one of the most successful sales and marketing programs in the public laboratory sector. However, despite its pre-acquisition statements that it would retain DIANON’s operational integrity, LabCorp has already begun to implem…
Labs In United Kingdom Study U.S., Canadian Labs
CEO SUMMARY: It was a groundbreaking first for both sides of the Atlantic. Senior pathologists and laboratory directors in the United Kingdom spent two days learning from their North American counterparts about the challenges and difficulties in laboratory consolidation and regionalizatio…
Jamaica Med Techs, Kaiser Permanente, Cytyc, Myriad Genetics, Bayer, CLMA
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGISTS IN JAMAICA STAGE WALK-OUT IN JANUARY LABORATORY TECHS ARE NOT KNOWN to be a radical component of the labor movement. But that doesn’t seem to be the case in Jamaica, where more than 80 of that country’s medical technologists walked off their jobs twice in January in…
Quest Ready to Move on Unilab, Announces Its 2002 Earnings
PERSISTENCE IS ABOUT TO PAY OFF for Quest Diagnostics Incorporated. After ten months of effort, it expects to finalize its acquisition of Unilab Corporation within weeks. But the Unilab acquisition soon to close looks different than the acquisition that was original…
“February 10, 2003 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
IMPATH, Inc. has replaced its long-time Chairman and CEO in the wake of a scandal involving expense accounts. The resignation of Anu D. Saad, Ph.D., was accepted and became effective today. In her place, IMPATH named Carter H. Eckert, an existing Director, as the new Chairman and CEO…
New Trends in 2003 Affect Clinical Lab Services
CEO SUMMARY: Here’s our current list of macro trends that affect clinical laboratories, updated from the last list in January 2000. One bold prediction is that Medicare, as we know it, is on the verge of a major meltdown. Employers and consumers are also new forces to be reckoned with b…
New Market Channel For Esoteric Testing
CEO SUMMARY: It’s a new marketing model for specialty esoteric tests that presents both clinical and financial challenges to hospital and health system laboratories. Niche labs offering esoteric tests are sending sales reps directly to physicians and bypassing pathologists and lab direc…
“January 20, 2003 Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
December proved to be an eventful month for many companies in the lab industry. Here’s some key items of interest, many to be followed in more detail in coming issues of THE DARK REPORT: •AmeriPath, Inc. is to be sold to Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a privat…
Laboratories Sit Squarely Between New Genetics and Today’s Medicine
“Clinical laboratories and pathology groups are at the leading edge of the genetic revolution.” —Rick J. Carlson. CEO SUMMARY: Healthcare futurist Rick J. Carlson believes that knowledge of the human genome will trigger revolutionary…
CURRENT ISSUE
Volume XXXII, No. 15 – October 27, 2025
The Dark Report examines the momentous decision by the VA to switch accreditors from The Joint Commission to CAP. Also, we analyze retractions in pathology journals to gain insight into scientific fraud.
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