Rushing between scientific sessions and technology demos, the average attendee at last week’s annual meeting of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) was likely most grateful for one thing: comfortable footwear.
Neary 17,000 attendees came to the week-long event, according to ADLM 2026 organizers. Attendance was up by about 3% from last year’s total of 16,500.
The meeting took place at the Anaheim Convention Center, across the street from Disneyland in toasty Southern California. The massive exhibit hall hosted 700 booths from vendors selling diagnostic components, raw materials, testing systems, and more. Outside, hundreds of people took photos in front of the super-sized ADLM logo near the conference center’s main entrance.
Former ADLM president lauds attendees who ‘bring insights’
The event’s tagline was “Meeting of the Minds.” Former ADLM president Octavia Peck Palmer, PhD, FADLM, BS, told Dark Daily that the theme had real-world implications for clinical laboratory professionals.
“I think ‘meeting of the minds’ is appropriate because here I'm able to not only meet with some of my colleagues that I've known for years, but also new individuals who are coming into my network,” said Peck Palmer, who is division director for clinical chemistry and associate professor pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “They bring insights to me, from women’s health and preeclampsia to infectious disease and newer technology that I can use.”
Peck Palmer, who is also vice chair of health equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEI) for the Department of Pathology at the medical school, received the Humans of ADLM – DEI Leadership Award at the conference. She is a vocal proponent of laboratory professionals getting out into their communities to gauge patient needs.
ADLM 2026 general sessions address diabetes, cervical cancer, and mass spec
Plenary sessions at ADLM 2026 reflected important trends running through the clinical lab industry:
- Diabetes prevention. Using diagnostics to catch pre-diabetic patients ahead of the full-blown disease illustrates how labs can reduce long-term costs in health care.
- Mass spectrometry. Perhaps no other technology garnered as much of the spotlight this year at ADLM 2026 as mass spec. Beyond the plenary discussion about using mass spec to discover new cancer immunotherapy approaches, attendees visiting the exhibit hall may have noticed how strongly in vitro diagnostics companies promoted their mass spec offerings, a noticeable shift at this year’s meeting.
- Women’s health. Leeya Pinder, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Global Cancer Control and associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, explained the clinical lab’s role in advancing cervical cancer screenings during her keynote.d
Pinder pushed patient self-collection for human papillomavirus testing as an effective option. “The pros are increased access for underscreened populations … and flexibility in where people can perform the collection,” she said.
Watch for in-depth analysis from ADLM 2026 in upcoming issues of The Dark Report.
