ADLM 2024 Highlights Point-of-Care and Sepsis Innovations

The annual meeting and laboratory expo for the Association for Diagnostics in Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) is a well-known opportunity for vendors and industry experts to unite for a glimpse into the future of laboratory medicine. This year was my first time attending ADLM, and during the two days, I had to keep a fast pace to take in all the sights and sounds of the expo hall.

(Pro tip: Comfortable walking shoes will allow you to cover the most ground possible at this event.)

As a first-time attendee, my primary focus was the exhibitor hall—an expansive floor boasting 900+ vendors. Trying to cover all vendor booths in 24 hours simply isn’t possible and diminishes the value of in-person networking. 

Many laboratory leaders will schedule advance meetings with vendors related to their upcoming lab purchases to ensure they get some dedicated time with the vendors’ best specialists. Scheduling all their investigational vendor meetings into this one week allows clinical leaders to free up the remaining 51 weeks of the year. 

This approach also provides the benefit of seeing and trying out new equipment and workflows in person, prompting constructive and thoughtful discussions with vendors. Though, note that not all vendors offer personal meeting opportunities.

Point-of-care and direct-to-consumer testing

Plenty of new technologies were on display during this year’s event. Key trends among the exhibitors were further advancement of automation workflows, including advancing AI capabilities, sepsis management, and point-of-care or direct-to-consumer testing. Many vendors investing in these types of products are competing head-to-head in the market, providing laboratory leaders with the opportunity to conduct side-by-side comparisons of available options.  

A prime example is the number of nucleic acid amplifications assays featuring low complexity, near-patient testing options. The catch on many of these newly available options being their limited scope due to small test menus. 

Along the lines of near-patient testing comes the direct-to-consumer option, with several vendors displaying their assortment of “home collection” kits. At-home tests are ideal for labs unable to perform a specific test or unable to offer a suitable home collection option themselves. Laboratory leaders should keep an eye on at-home technologies as they threaten to pull valuable medical information and revenue out of the healthcare system. Although direct-to-consumer testing received a bad reputation during the high profile Theranos legal case, public interest in direct-to-consumer testing is increasing again as more testing options enter the market.

Sepsis prevention, detection, and management

Sepsis prevention, detection, and management continues to be a topic of considerable potency for health systems worldwide. The associated healthcare burden of sepsis looms large with an estimated 350,000 deaths and more than 1.7 million adult hospitalizations each year in the US. 

So far, current lab tests for sepsis have not yet been displaced by new technologies. However, this year, several vendors had newer offerings in this space from broad-range sequencing and multiplex nucleic acid amplification tests to pathogen agnostic methods assessing multiple biological markers. 

The pathogen agnostic methods generally include multiple current or new biomarkers that are combined to stratify the risk of a patient progressing to sepsis. These methods present an interesting new take on early sepsis detection, as they are typically easier for labs to bring into core laboratory functions, precluding the need for expensive sequencing technology and specialized personnel. 

More broadly, multi-biomarker methodology operates at a lower cost per test than molecular sequencing technologies. Cost is an important factor as sepsis care is typically paid under a bundled payment, meaning labs are not being paid for each test performed. Thus, any opportunity to hold the line on cost is accretive to a lab’s financial bottom line. 

Lab automation and AI

There also continues to be significant investment toward developing automation and AI to increase labor efficiency and/or improve analytical sensitivity. Every major vendor now offers their own preanalytical specimen management solution with several third-party vendors offering adjunct options for specimen handling. As for AI, many options now exist for integrating AI into digital slide review in multiple disciplines, including cytology, histology, urinalysis, microbiology, hematology, and immunology. 

Excitement for the future of laboratory medicine

My first visit to ADLM was a great learning experience with several important takeaways—point-of-care and at-home testing continue to trend upwards, while early sepsis detection remains a key focus for the industry. Moreover, I was happy to find that the possibility of laboratorians working from home using digital slide review is closer to reality than I had anticipated. Overall, I left the lab expo excited about what the future holds for laboratory medicine.