Igniting clinical excellence

To create transformational change within healthcare organizations, clinical labs must build new, interdisciplinary partnerships — something the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence awards program has highlighted since its inception in 2018.

A session held July 29 at ADLM 2025 (formerly the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo) explored trends among UNIVANTS winners and examined what it takes to make lasting improvements to patient care. UNIVANTS is a partnership of eight health-centered organizations: the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly AACC), Abbott, Modern Healthcare, the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, the European Health Management Association, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the National Association for Healthcare Quality, and the Institute of Health Economics.

UNIVANTS has recognized more than 80 initiatives from 32 countries. These include efforts to identify kidney disease in indigenous communities early enough to slow the progression of disease, to improve the perioperative pathway for people with diabetes, and to combat barriers to screening for sexually transmitted diseases.

Octavia Peck Palmer, PhD, FADLM, vice chair of health equity and associate professor in the departments of pathology, critical care medicine, and clinical and translational science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, came away from the July 29 session feeling inspired, she said.

“The biggest takeaway for me was to think about different partnerships I should be cultivating when I am thinking about how to improve patient lives,” Palmer said. “I’m now thinking about how to partner with payors to identify and fill healthcare gaps, which means understanding what the payors need.”

Developing partnerships is a central tenet in the UNIVANTS program. The awards program recognizes teams that collaborate across disciplines and transform healthcare delivery and, ultimately, patient lives. To be considered for recognition, clinical care initiatives must involve at least three disciplines, including laboratory medicine or pathology. The highest rated clinical care initiatives involve at least five disciplines, according to the UNIVANTS applicant guide.

Christine Schmotzer, MD, pathologist-in-chief and executive vice chair at University Hospitals Cleveland, said it is critical for labs to partner with other departments within their health system to have a substantial effect on practices. Involving clinicians is particularly important, she stressed.

Schmotzer, who was one of the presenters at the July 29 session, was part of a team that was recognized by UNIVANTS in 2022 for an initiative that increased the accuracy of prescription compliance monitoring through enhanced drug testing support. In addition, she has served independently as a judge for the program.

Khosrow Shotorbani, MBA, MLS(ASCP), president and CEO of Project Santa Fe Foundation and founder and CEO of Lab 2.0 Strategic Services LLC, also attended the session and said it reiterated the importance of partnerships in driving change.

“It’s about getting out of the lab and locking arms with clinicians, helping to design care models of the future, and measuring the key performance indicators that matter in terms of outcomes,” he said. “Partnerships are essential. Clinical laboratories can’t drive change alone.”

Define and deliver data

Another key to developing and implementing successful initiatives is data, Schmotzer said. To have a successful demonstration of outcomes, it’s important to define your data strategy in advance, she advised. Define goal-oriented data by first identifying the problem you are trying to solve and then determine what data might support the assessment of the outcomes you are trying to demonstrate. The data might be qualitative or it might be quantitative.

Part of your data strategy should be to source non-lab data at the beginning of the project, she advised. This includes data related to revenue cycles, payors, electronic health record usage, patient access encounters, pharmacy, accountable care organization metrics, market share, and operations.

Palmer agreed that gathering and analyzing data is a big part of making transformational change. “We need to think about who holds the data in our organizations, how they are using that data, and how we can access it,” she said. “We need to understand how to interrogate the data so that it leads to a better healthcare experience.”

Focus on process

Initiatives do not have to address something new or exciting to be successful, said Schmotzer, who noted that even something as simple as glucose testing can be improved through a new process.

Palmer agreed, noting that successful initiatives don’t necessarily have to involve a new test or a new diagnostic tool.

“How do we use the tools we already have?” she asked. “How do we ensure we are using diagnostic tools correctly and appropriately and how do we ensure that the people who need these tools can get access to them? There’s a whole host of medically underserved individuals. We can do better.”

One example of this is an initiative implemented by Kaiser Permanente Southern California to improve management of patients with high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Clinical guidelines are clear that high-intensity statins are effective at reducing LDL-C; however, they are underutilized among adults with LDL-C equal to or greater than 190
mg/dL. By implementing electronic health record-directed algorithms that recommended treatment, the organization, which was a 2024 top UNIVANTS winner, saw a 6% improvement in high-intensity statin prescription orders for patients with LDL-C at or above 190 mg/dL and a 22.2% relative increase in the proportion of patients who improved their LDL.

“Whether it’s new or old, or whether there are guidelines that exist or not, putting a governed process in place to make sure that the best practice actually gets implemented is where a lot of the impact is,” Schmotzer said. “And it always takes a spark of creativity.”

All labs are local

Although many of the applications submitted to UNIVANTS address global health issues, Schmotzer stressed that it’s important to keep in mind who your lab is serving. She cited a 2022 winning initiative out of Malaysia in which women were empowered to self-sample for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, which resulted in an increase in the number of women testing positive for HPV and then being linked to treatment. Because it can be difficult for women in Malaysia to travel to a clinic to get tested for HPV, this initiative solved a problem specific to that country.

Schmotzer encouraged potential future UNIVANTS applicants to determine what problems there are in their local area and consider designing initiatives to tackle those challenges.

Applications are open now

UNIVANTS is currently accepting applications for the 2026 awards, according to Tricia Ravalico, executive lead for the program. The deadline for submissions is November 15. Applications can be made through the UNIVANTS website at www.univantshce.com.

The website also contains a plethora of useful resources, such as best practice examples, helpful hints, templates, and checklists.

The program is open to all healthcare professionals. The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence program is agnostic to products and platforms. In fact, manufacturers’ names or any direct product names may not be included in any part of the application process.

Shotorbani and Palmer encourage teams that have implemented successful initiatives to apply for the award. Even if your team doesn’t win, the feedback you receive is worthwhile, they said.

“UNIVANTS is becoming a blueprint of how we are manufacturing a sustainable future,” Shotorbani said. “We can no longer build the Taj Mahal of healthcare and wait for the sick to arrive. We have to meet patients where they are.”

Find more information about UNIVANTS at www.univantshce.com.

Kimberly Scott is a freelance writer who lives in Lewes, Delaware. +Email: [email protected]

Read the full September-October issue of CLN here.