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
Cerner’s Market-Driven Employee Health Program
CEO SUMMARY: Cerner Corporation is using a variety of strategies to reduce the cost of health benefits and improve the quality of care for its workers and dependents. Gluing the entire effort together is an integrated patient health record (PHR) and a host of electronic services, ranging …
New Report Says Half Nation’s Hospitals Have Financial Woes
CEO Summary: In a groundbreaking study just released, consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal determined that as many as half of the nation’s hospitals are failing to generate enough patient revenue to sustain expenses! With a median occupancy rate of 43%, these hospitals are likely to exp…
Ruling Against UroPath Signals More Fed Action
CEO SUMMARY: It was a signal win for federal healthcare officials when a federal district court judge in Washington, DC, dismissed a case brought by UroPath, LLC. UroPath had sued HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt seeking to challenge the physician fee schedule final order and the anti-markup…
Federal Court Rules on Specimen Ownership
CEO SUMMARY: Recently, a federal appeals court affirmed a district court ruling concerning who owns human tissue specimens that are stored for research and other uses. While most clinical laboratories routinely discard many types of human specimens after use, any research facility or IVD …
May 27, 2008 “Intelligence: Late Breaking Lab News”
A simple telemedicine system that incorporates cheap cell phone cameras is being developed by researchers in the United States and Brazil, according to an article in the May 15 issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal, Analytical Chemistry. The goal is to capture medical da…
Univ. of Tokyo Hospital Lab Has Plenty of Automation
CEO SUMMARY: In Japan, many clinical laboratories are in their third decade of using automation. At the University of Tokyo Hospital, total laboratory automation (TLA) was first implemented in 1991. Now on its fourth generation TLA system, this laboratory was worked upstream to automate s…
Healthcare Has First Standards for Use of Bar Codes and RFID
THREE ORGANIZATIONS have jointly developed information technology standards to be used in identifying patients, drugs, and medical devices. These standards use bar code, radio frequency identification (RFID), and two-dimensional symbol technologies. The American National Standards Institute …
Cell Phones to be Used to Report Patient Self-Test Results
HOW ABOUT USING A CELL PHONE to monitor patient in-home laboratory test results? That’s about to happen with a new program introduced by CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland. CareFirst will test whether monitoring devices in cell phones can help patients with diabetes mana…
Implementing Best Practices Across 27 Hospital Labs
CEO SUMMARY: It is always challenging to ensure consistency and high productivity across the different labs in a consolidated lab organization. To help staff focus on quality and efficiency, Alverno Clinical Laboratories LLC uses Lean methods to improve quality and timely delivery of lab …
PhyTest Assists Doctors With Lab Testing Revenue
CEO SUMMARY: PhyTest, Inc., created a unique business model upon its founding in 1998. It primarily specializes in handling laboratory test billing and collection services to office-based physicians. It also provides evaluation, consulting, and implementation services to help physicians i…
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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