Communication Strategies Prove Popular at Lab Manager Leadership Summit

During the clinical lab management track of this week’s 2025 Lab Manager Leadership Summit in Pittsburgh, there was a rally cry for clearer communication.

Clinical lab managers and leaders at the in-person conference—which Today’s Clinical Lab co-hosted with its partner brand Lab Manager—learned how to more effectively convey what’s expected of staff and the type of testing information available to patients.

Clinical lab management track keynote presenter Octavia Peck Palmer, PhD, FADLM, BS, urged attendees to get out and talk to members of their community. Her keynote was titled, “How to Combat Misinformation in Your Clinical Laboratory’s Community.”

“You can’t learn about a community by staying in the lab,” said Palmer, who is director of the division of clinical chemistry in the section of laboratory medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and immediate past president of the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine.

Innovative approach to better understand community needs

At the Lab Manager Leadership Summit, Peck Palmer detailed an event called “Ask a Laboratorian” that her school’s clinical lab hosted at a community center to better understand the medical needs of the public. At the gathering, she answered questions about microbiology and the perception of laboratory medicine among customers.

Some of the questions Peck Palmer fielded during the community event provided clear opportunities for improved communication from clinical labs. 

Questions included:

• Should I use Google to search for diseases or testing? In response, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center retooled its webpage that explains routine lab tests so that patients had clear information from a trusted source.
• If I eat certain foods before a test, will it mess up the results? Labs can update their websites or handouts to specify how diet can affect a test.

“Find formal and appropriate venues to promote information,” Palmer said.

Honestly assessing promotion opportunities 

During his session at the Lab Manager Leadership Summit, “Succession Planning: How to Find and Prepare Your Future Replacement,” Curtiss McNair Jr. described the promotion evaluation that every incoming clinical lab manager should make at their organization.

McNair, who is the new vice president of operations at PanGia Biotech, asked his direct reports to assess their staff’s potential for succession using a range:

• Immediately promotable within 0–6 months.
• Promotable within 12–18 months.
• Promotable within 24–36 months.
• Not promotable.

Managers must be clear about the last bullet with affected staff, McNair said. “Tell your people the truth, and don’t be afraid they might walk about the door,” he added. “That’s OK.”

“If you promote the wrong person, you’ve got a bigger problem than if you hadn’t filled the position,” he continued.

Communication ideas to aid regulatory compliance

More effective communication was also a big part of the regulatory compliance strategies explored by Kelly VanBemmel, MS, MB(ASCP)CM, laboratory operations supervisor at Devyser Genomic Laboratories in Roswell, GA.

As reported in Dark Daily, another partner brand of Today’s Clinical Lab, bench scientists often dismiss the responsibility of clinical laboratory regulations, instead shifting the onus to their managers.

“There’s a gap between how staff experience regulations and how management does,” VanBemmel said during her presentation at the Lab Manager Leadership Summit, “Leading Clinical Labs During Challenging Regulatory Times.”

In those cases, clear communication from managers is needed to help reset expectations, she added. For example, lab managers can highlight non-compliant conditions—such as diagnostic analyzer malfunctions and sample cross contamination—over which bench staff have direct control, helping workers better understand their responsibility when it comes to compliance.

For clinical lab leaders, two takeaways stand out about communication:

• Direct discussion between managers and staff can make expectations clearer, whether it concerns regulatory compliance, future promotions, or other areas of management.
• Local patients may be thirsting for information about lab medicine, and a community-based event is a successful approach to address that need.

The next Lab Manager Leadership Summit is scheduled for April 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.