Volume 38 Number 4 | August 2024
The Critical Role of Professional Advocacy in Laboratory Medicine
Nicholas Moore, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Board of Directors
Medical laboratory personnel provide the diagnostic insights clinicians require for the care of patients in modern healthcare settings. Despite functioning as the silent engine powering this massive ship, our voices are all too often lost in the cacophony of the conversation surrounding healthcare. Critical to our success is the role of professional advocacy, a means to give a voice to those who fade in the background. In this commentary, I want to examine the role that professional advocacy plays in the laboratory medicine community and examine how it can affect professional visibility and patient outcomes.
Advocacy is a powerful means of change. Whether individually, or together as part of an organization, advocacy efforts help to create or modify laws and regulations that support high standards, help strengthen public trust, and improve the field of laboratory medicine. At its most basic level, advocacy serves as a means to elevate the voices of laboratory professionals, thereby ensuring that their views are acknowledged, and their expertise taken into consideration regarding new legislation or policies related to healthcare. In an era of constant change within the healthcare industry and rapidly evolving technology, advocacy is more important than ever.
Advocacy within the profession needs to be calculated. It must go beyond simple activism to bring about positive change. The efforts we put forth will help shape the future of laboratory medicine, whether these are focused on efforts regarding laws that regulate laboratory testing, e.g., CLIA; workforce development programs to attract and retain personnel; or policies surrounding how reimbursement for laboratory services are determined. Working collectively with one’s peers helps to develop a sense of camaraderie and one’s own professional identity.
ASCLS sponsors an annual Laboratory Legislative Symposium (now called the Labvocate Symposium) in the fall. This meeting provides an opportunity for ASCLS members and non-members to journey to Washington, DC, and learn about critical legislative items that are being considered by congressional representatives. During this meeting, members will have the opportunity to meet with their elected representatives and legislative staff to share with them our concerns regarding issues affecting the laboratory community.
Another well-known example occurs each April. The annual Medical Laboratory Professionals Week campaign is cosponsored by ASCLS along with 17 other professional organizations. Lab Week serves as a platform to highlight the key roles that laboratory professionals play in patient care. Lab Week is an occasion to celebrate and honor the unsung heroes of the laboratory by showcasing their invaluable work through a range of events, educational programs, and social media campaigns. At my own hospital, many got involved in activities including lab coat decorating contests, Barbie on the lab shelf, and Build-a-Barbie using laboratory supplies. Our anatomic pathology lab won the prize for the most creative Build-a-Barbie. Planning and having events like these are just one example of how we as leaders can recognize our staff and colleagues and promote the profession within our organizations while also giving them a much-needed break from the stress of the job.
Despite all of this, our community continues to face many challenges. Whether it is the ongoing workforce shortage, declining reimbursement with or without increasing inflation, working through a global pandemic (or all the above simultaneously), there are still things we can do to try to increase awareness and work to overcome these challenges.
Collaboration is essential to overcome these obstacles. Collaboration strengthens our community bonds and amplifies our collective voice to have more substantial impact than any one individual. Membership in advocacy groups and professional societies like ASCLS are essential in generating support for initiatives and to help bring about change. Together we can influence policies to support innovation and excellence and generate new knowledge in the field of laboratory medicine, while promoting safe and effective care for the patients and communities we serve.
On April 29, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized their much-anticipated rule governing laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). This ruling is contentious in the laboratory community. Proponents of the ruling felt it was much needed to ensure the safety of the American public, whereas critics fear that this approach by the FDA is an overreach and that such action could undermine access to critical testing services for many patients, whether through the cessation of testing or by stifling innovation and the creation of new LDTs. Within our own professional organizations there has been a divide on who does and who does not support FDA oversight of LDTs. This topic is sure to evolve over the next few months, especially with the lawsuit filed by the American Clinical Laboratory Association in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Pausing to reflect on the role of advocacy, we must acknowledge its significance in shaping the future of the healthcare system. As we are faced with unprecedented challenges and opportunities, we must ensure that we advocate for ourselves, our laboratories, and our community to ensure that we can continue our mission. Professional advocacy serves as a cornerstone in the clinical laboratory community, advocating for policies that advance our interests while minimizing risk and harm to our patients. Activities such as the Labvocate Symposium and our Lab Week campaign offer visibility and recognition to our colleagues and their many contributions to healthcare. It is critical that we reaffirm our commitment to advocacy as we recognize its role in advancing the art and science of laboratory medicine.
Nicholas Moore (Nicholas_Moore@rush.edu) is Associate Director of Clinical Microbiology; Director, BSL-3 Biocontainment Laboratory; and Associate Professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Find him on Twitter/X at @nmoore07.
The anatomic pathology lab at Rush University Medical Center won the prize for most creative Build-a-Barbie during the 2024 Medical Laboratory Professionals Week.
“Whether individually, or together as part of an organization, advocacy efforts help to create or modify laws and regulations that support high standards, help strengthen public trust, and improve the field of laboratory medicine.”