CLN Daily 2024
For over 40 years, the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM, formerly AACC) Scientific Divisions have been a core feature of the ADLM community, allowing members with shared expertise and interests to discuss new research and develop relationships with one another. Now, for the first time in their history, these divisions are undergoing a restructuring to become better aligned with the current laboratory medicine landscape. The revised divisions portfolio was announced by ADLM President Octavia Peck Palmer, PhD, FADLM, in May 2024 and will take effect in January 2025.
“The association is incredibly proud of the scientific accomplishments achieved by division members in the last four decades,” Peck Palmer wrote. However, she noted that over the past several years, ADLM experienced a decline in member engagement under the existing structure.
The dedicated work of the ADLM Board of Directors, the Division Program Implementation Task Force (DPITF), and the hundreds of members who provided their input culminated in a new set of divisions that meet today’s laboratory professionals’ educational and career needs. “We took time to define what would be the benefits of joining a division, and to ensure that [the new portfolio] would appeal to our membership,” said Alison Woodworth, PhD, chair of the DPITF.
The new divisions portfolio
Beginning in January 2025, the 21 current scientific divisions will be restructured into 14 new divisions. Four of the divisions, including the Health Equity & Access Division and the Pediatric & Maternal-Fetal Division, will undergo a one-to-one transition, retaining their original name and largely the same focus, scope, and practice area in the new portfolio. Other divisions will acquire a new name, but their scope and practice areas will remain similar. For instance, the Animal Clinical Chemistry Division will transition to the Comparative Laboratory Medicine Division. For these transitions, current members will automatically become members of the new division and maintain their existing benefits.
The third restructuring category involves merging multiple divisions into one new division. The task force worked closely with division leaders to identify areas of overlap between divisions, and to incorporate the strengths of each original division into the new portfolio. Current members of merged divisions will be automatically moved to new, merged divisions with overlapping interests for the first year and can choose the divisions they’d like to join during membership renewal.
Uniting once-separate divisions is also an excellent way for ADLM to better include and serve the increasingly diverse lab medicine community, Woodworth said. “I think as an organization, we really need to start appealing to members that are in industry, members that are in biotech — not just the classic hospital-based laboratory medicine members,” she said. To that end, the DPITF created the Innovation & Technology Division, which is designed to appeal to members from a broad range of backgrounds, including industry, biotech, academia, and practicing clinicians.
Additionally, the restructuring will ensure that ADLM’s divisions align with the latest trends in laboratory medicine. The Clinical & Diagnostic Immunology and Clinical Translational Sciences Divisions will merge into the new Immunology & Infectious Disease Division to best reflect current clinical practice. Likewise, the Cardiovascular Health Division will become the new home for current divisions centered around cardiovascular disease, lipids, and nutrition, reflecting the overlap between these scientific areas.
Leadership and mentorship
The basic leadership structure of the new divisions will remain unchanged but will be standardized across all divisions — including term lengths and which positions are elected or appointed — to ensure equity in the governance of all divisions. Additionally, each new division will feature several supporting officers who will assist in growing and supporting divisions.
One of these supporting officers will be the Early Career Representative, who will advocate for early career professionals within the division. This is part of ADLM’s effort to prioritize the professional development and involvement of ADLM’s early-career members under the new division portfolio, according to Woodworth. Division chairs will meet at least twice a year with their Early Career Representative to provide mentorship, and divisions’ annual reports will be required to describe how their programming incorporated mentorship of early-career members.
“We specifically called out the need to provide mentorship as a requirement for the divisions, which in the past was inherent but never called out explicitly,” Woodworth said. “We’re hoping to have younger, early career members see that as a true benefit.”
History and future
As ADLM and its divisions move into this next chapter of their history, the DPITF has ensured that the core of the organization, clinical chemistry, and the divisions themselves will be protected and elevated. The History Division will be reorganized as a Special Committee reporting directly to the Board of Directors. Additionally, a History Artery forum will be maintained, and current division platforms will be archived and available for reference to all division members.
“We as a committee have understood the importance of an organization’s history to its future,” Woodworth said. “They will have influence to breathe that important history into our organization going forward,” she said of the Special Committee.
Laboratory medicine and healthcare are changing rapidly, and ADLM leaders are excited to upgrade the association’s divisions program to prepare for the future. ADLM is also committed to supporting its members through the restructuring process: for any questions about the new division portfolio, please contact ADLM staff liaison, Caitlin Ondracek, PhD ([email protected]).