Volume 40 Number 4 | August 2026
Summary
ASCLS Past President Kyle Riding expresses gratitude to laboratory professionals for their persistent and skilled advocacy efforts—”Labvocacy”—which protect high standards, ensure quality patient care, and responsibly guide regulatory and technological changes within laboratory medicine. He emphasizes that such advocacy is a critical, ongoing professional responsibility integral to the field’s integrity and future.
Kyle B. Riding, PhD, MLS(ASCP)CM, ASCLS Past President
Advocacy—or as we call it in ASCLS, Labvocacy—rarely ever looks or feels all that exciting. It also doesn’t always come with headlines or quick results. More often, it shows up quietly in emails written after long workdays, in long meetings where uncomfortable conversations build consensus, or in testimony carefully crafted to be grounded in evidence and presented to policymakers. Yet make no mistake: advocacy is one of the most critical of our professional responsibilities, and everyone in our profession has a role to play. Today, I want to pause and offer sincere thanks to the laboratory professionals who continue to do this work with integrity and persistence.
Across the country, Labvocates are showing up repeatedly to protect high standards in laboratory medicine and to ensure patients receive safe, reliable, and timely care. This work is not easy, and it is rarely linear. Regulatory environments shift. Policies evolve. Decisions are sometimes made without a full understanding of what happens behind the laboratory doors. Advocacy exists precisely because of that uncertainty. It is how we ensure that decisions affecting patient testing are informed by expertise rather than convenience.
What makes this community’s advocacy especially inspirational is rooted in the outcome being sought. When laboratory professionals advocate for strong personnel standards or appropriate regulatory oversight, we are not seeking prestige. Instead, we are looking to safeguard quality. We understand that every positive outcome for our patients depends on the systems that support competent practice. Labvocacy is how we defend those systems before erosion becomes harm.
Many of us Labvocates work at the intersection of policy and practice and translate complex laboratory realities into a language that decision-makers can understand. That translation takes skill. It requires patience, diplomacy, and a deep belief that facts matter. This is because patients deserve testing performed by qualified professionals working within evidence-based frameworks. That message—repeated steadily and respectfully—has real impact, thanks to the ASCLS community.
” … to every laboratory professional who has written a letter, attended a meeting, shared expertise, mentored a new Labvocate, or spoken up when it would have been easier to stay quiet: thank you”
ASCLS programs, such as the annual Labvocate Symposium, exemplify how structured advocacy builds confidence and community. These programs do more than teach strategy; they remind participants that advocacy is a learned skill and not an innate trait reserved for a few. By creating spaces where laboratory professionals can practice telling their stories and engage with decision-makers, ASCLS strengthens the profession from within. Those who participate often return energized and more connected to the broader mission of our profession.
Equally deserving of notice are the constituent societies and volunteers who sustain advocacy efforts year after year. Their work is often invisible to those outside the organization, but its effects are enduring. Tracking legislation, responding to proposed rules, engaging with state agencies, and attending student events all require sustained labor from these impressive volunteers. It requires a willingness to keep showing up even when progress feels slow. Their efforts reflect a profound sense of responsibility to their colleagues and patients. For you all engaging in that effort: my heart is filled with gratitude for you.
What stands out most to me is that advocacy within our community is not driven by fear, but by professionalism. It is not about resisting change but about guiding change responsibly. Laboratory medicine is evolving rapidly, and Labvocates understand that innovation and regulation must move together. Advocacy ensures that new technologies and new workforce structures enhance quality rather than undermine it. That balance is difficult to achieve, and it is only possible when experts like you are at the table.
Gratitude is especially important when it comes to advocacy because it can be exhausting. It asks people to care deeply about outcomes they may never personally witness. It demands resilience in the face of setbacks and misunderstandings. Saying “thank you” does not lighten the workload—but I hope it does affirm that the work matters.
So, to every laboratory professional who has written a letter, attended a meeting, shared expertise, mentored a new Labvocate, or spoken up when it would have been easier to stay quiet: thank you. Thank you for protecting standards. Thank you for defending quality. Thank you for remembering that patient outcomes are inseparable from professional integrity.
Advocacy is not separate from our daily work—it is an extension of it. Reliability, accountability, and ethics not only guide us at the bench, but they also guide us in policy and public engagement. Because of that alignment, our advocacy is credible, effective, and deeply human.
In an increasingly dynamic regulatory environment, the steady presence of informed, committed Labvocates makes all the difference. Your efforts shape the future of the profession and, more importantly, the safety and well-being of the patients who depend on our work. That is something worth recognizing, celebrating, and thanking—today and always.
Kyle B. Riding is Clinical Associate Professor and Program Director at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire.