As the world of laboratory medicine rapidly evolves, so too does ADLM’s annual meeting. Steven Cotten, PhD, the chair of this year’s Annual Meeting Organizing Committee (AMOC), has made sure of that. Cotten is the director of automated chemistry and critical care testing, and associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He and the AMOC not only embraced the challenge of maintaining ADLM 2025’s relevance to laboratory medicine today, but also expanded the meeting’s offerings to appeal to a wide range of healthcare professionals.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s meeting?
I’m really excited about the plenaries this year! They highlight the spectrum of valuable and varied contributions that laboratory medicine professionals make to healthcare. From artificial intelligence to scientific misinformation, this year’s plenaries cover some of the hottest topics shaping our field. Thursday’s plenary addresses the threat of plastics and PFAS chemicals. As someone whose water is contaminated with PFAS, I think that one is very important.
We’re also rolling out some new learning formats for 2025. For example, we’ll have a “choose your own adventure” style session, during which audience members get to make their own diagnostic choices and see how they play out, and a Jeopardy!-themed scientific session.
How have recent changes in lab medicine affected the meeting?
Laboratory developed tests (LDTs) and their regulation have certainly seen a lot of change. While LDT regulations are paused for now under the current administration, their long term future remains uncertain. To that end, we’re planning a session that delves into the advocacy efforts around regulation.
As ADLM grows, the content of the meeting is expanding too. We had submissions this year for sessions related to microbiology, hematology, and coagulation, so you can see that those topics are maturing within our organization.
Why is it critical for the lab medicine community to collaborate at this type of meeting?
These days, most research projects require a crossdisciplinary team of collaborators who can learn — and apply — new information. Because your team may need to rely on people outside of your expertise to do that, it is important to identify people who bring additional knowledge and skills to help you solve problems.
Do you have a specific goal for ADLM 2025?
I want to bring new voices into the meeting. During my time leading AMOC, I made sure that we tapped into new talent with new ideas. And I’m pleased to report that we have a very diverse slate of speakers this year — not only for the plenaries but also for the scientific sessions and university courses that are new to the meeting.
Will ADLM 2025 appeal to people who aren’t clinical laboratorians?
Yes, there’s really something for everyone at this meeting. We’ve got a decent amount of content on clinical microbiology, hematology and coagulation, and much more. I come from a drug development background, and one of the sessions I’m moderating is on GLP-1 receptors; we’ll explore GLP-1-mediated changes that go beyond diabetes and weight loss and what they might mean for laboratory medicine. I’m looking forward to pioneering new approaches to this meeting and its content.
Jen A. Miller is a freelance journalist who lives in Audubon, New Jersey. +Bluesky: @byjenamiller.bsky.social
Register, explore, and plan your conference at meeting.myadlm.org.
Interested in a specific area of laboratory medicine at ADLM 2025?
Use these six pathways to guide your planning.
Microbiology and molecular diagnostics
- Emerging pathogens: Science, strategy, and lab readiness
- Serologic testing in the age of molecular diagnostics
- When urine trouble and it ʼsnot straightforward: Clinically relevant thresholds for workup of urine and respiratory cultures
- Let’s talk about STIs, baby: Considerations for STI diagnoses and pharmacologic changes during pregnancy
- Sepsis mythbusters: The what and why of sepsis
- Breaking down silos: Transfusion medicine, microbiology, and hematopathology intersections with clinical chemistry
Leadership and laboratory management
- You are in Jeopardy: Effective strategies for laboratory crisis management
- Beyond pamphlets and brochures: Strategic marketing skills to optimize your lab’s offerings
- Enhancing engagement between laboratory medicine professionals and C-suite executives
- The fee-for-service payment system for lab tests: A challenge for labs, patients, physicians, and insurers
- Expand your reach: Unlocking hospital laboratory potential through outreach
- Speaking the same language: Essential communication skills for lab professionals
Patient-centered point-of-care testing
- Improving laboratory analysis and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) quality to optimize diabetes therapy
- Quantitating compliance for point-of-care testing: Implementation, milestones, and metrics
- From bench to bedside: The evidence and implementation of GFAP & UCH-L1 in TBI evaluation
- Skills to solve problems and resolve challenges in point-of-care testing
- A practical guide to remote sampling: Regulatory and technical considerations for successful implementation of microsampling devices in the clinical laboratory
- Eliminating inequities in STIs using point-of-care testing: Identifying unmet needs
Population health and laboratory stewardship
- Population screening for type 1 diabetes: Controversies and opportunities
- Laboratory test showdown! Winning with laboratory stewardship
- Supporting healthy Indigenous communities through laboratory medicine and public health
- Global working groups advancing diagnostics and laboratory medicine: Achievements, gaps, and future directions
- Do sex differences in cardiac troponin cut-offs matter?
- Contextualizing the use of race in laboratory medicine
Data science and artificial intelligence
- Large language models in laboratory medicine: Foundations, cutting-edge advances, and applications
- Practical considerations in evaluating and implementing artificial intelligence solutions for today’s clinical laboratorian
- CCJ hot topics: Designing and implementing artificial intelligence in laboratory medicine
- Bad, better, best: Putting generative AI to the test
Frontiers in advancing care
- Metabolomics for diagnosis and monitoring treatment of inborn errors of metabolism
- The role of measuring cytokines in cancer immunotherapy
- Preeclampsia: Precision tools to improve prediction, enabling access in resource limited settings, and personalized medicine in special populations
- Proteomics in diabetes: Development and interlaboratory transfer of LC-MS/
MS assays for clinical research and patient care
- Revised criteria for diagnosis and staging: An update on blood-based biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia
- Metabolic reset in the age of GLP-1 receptor agonists: Changes in metabolism beyond diabetes and weight loss
