CLN Daily 2024
In keeping with tradition, the Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians (SYCL) held their annual workshop on Saturday, the day before the official start to ADLM 2024. This year’s gathering, titled, “Crafting Clarity: Integration of Language and Communication Tools in Laboratory Medicine,” provided a unique experience for attendees to not only learn new skills, but to practice them with their peers in one of the many breakout sessions. It was also a wonderful opportunity to celebrate SYCL’s 20th anniversary, as the group marked two decades of success in achieving their mission of facilitating learning, development, and networking opportunities for early-career laboratory professionals.
The audience first heard from Kristen Atkins, MD, who discussed how laboratory medical professionals can best communicate with people outside their area of expertise. Atkins encouraged attendees to ask themselves, “Who is my audience and why should they care?” They should then integrate the answer to that question in the first minute of any conversation or presentation. Atkins taught attendees improvisational skills to strengthen their ability to speak with new audiences.
Workshop attendees practiced these skills using funny, far-fetched examples, such as describing a cell phone to a person from the 1600s. “When there are discrepancies in knowledge between two parties, simple communication can feel like you are communicating across two different time periods.” Atkins commented. She concluded with the message that great communication not only facilitates engagement and collegiality in the workplace, but it also promotes buy-in from clinical colleagues, administrators, and other professionals.
The audience then heard from He Sarina Yang, PhD, DABCC (CC, TC), FADLM, who highlighted how evolving technology shapes communication through the example of AI chatbots in lab medicine. She began by providing a brief history of the origin and evolution of AI chatbots and large-language models like ChatGPT. She explained that generative AI is probability-based and predictive. It doesn’t use human reasoning to answer questions—a limitation that can lead to egregiously erroneous responses known as hallucinations.
Yang also pointed out that AI chatbots won’t be eliminating laboratory director jobs any time soon. When asked routine laboratory medicine questions, the software gave answers that were incomplete, partially incorrect, and/or excessively detailed. She concluded the session by providing a brief look at possible future applications of AI in laboratory medicine, such as medical education, that show great promise.
Frederick Strathmann, PhD, MBA, DABCC (CC, TC), closed the workshop by teaching the audience how to identify the “inner bird” that best represents their personal communication style. Strathmann led the audience through an assessment to find out if they were a social parrot, a detail-oriented owl, a results-driven eagle, or an empathetic dove. This exercise helped people recognize their own tendencies and be mindful of their strengths and weaknesses when speaking with others.
Knowing other people’s communications styles is also helpful for effective collaboration. For example, when discussing a project, an “eagle” may not want excessive details from an “owl,” preferring high-level bullet points instead. Strathmann discussed how recognizing and modifying your style with others improves team dynamics, benefits conflict resolution, and, if done well, promotes shared understanding from the outset, which minimizes disagreement.
After learning about communications skills, attendees honed their networking skills in a fun and festive mixer celebrating SYCL’s 20th birthday.