Clinical laboratories play a key role in diagnosing and treating diseases and making meaningful contributions to patient outcomes. But lab professionals can only provide equitable care if they understand how care varies across different demographics. Those in the best position to do that come from labs that foster diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for lab workers and patients alike. In short, a laboratory workforce that is representative of the patient population it serves translates to better care.
At ADLM 2026, Jaime Noguez, PhD, DABCC, will moderate a scientific session on July 27 that explores how labs can achieve DEI goals. It requires far more than just saying they’re important.
“Laboratorians are often told why DEI matters, but rarely do we have guidance for how to prioritize those concepts in the laboratory environment,” said Noguez, who is director of clinical chemistry and toxicology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and assistant professor of pathology at Case Western Reserve University. “We wanted to think about how we can help people to move from just having good intentions on DEI to actually having measurable action.”
The session, titled “Measuring what matters: a practical framework for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in lab medicine,” also features speakers Zahra Shajani-Yi, PhD, DABCC, FADLM, NRCC, senior clinical chemist and senior director at Labcorp, and Sean Campbell, PhD, DABCC, FADLM, assistant professor of pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
and codirector of chemistry and immunology laboratories at the Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York.
Noguez, Shajani-Yi, and Campbell all serve as members of ADLM’s DEI Steering Committee. Together, they will provide practical, evidence-based strategies on how to assess and strengthen DEI efforts in clinical laboratory environments. Attendees will examine common barriers to achieving DEI and explore real-world examples of successful initiatives. They’ll also learn how to apply a customizable scorecard to evaluate their own organizations and foster a community of inclusion and belonging.
The speakers will focus their talks on three key areas. First, they will present DEI metrics that clinical laboratories can measure that are actually informative, Noguez said. The name of the session is intentional in that way. “When we chose the phrase [“Measuring what matters”] for our title, in this context it means looking at meaningful indicators, not just activity counts,” she said.
Next, the presenters will address DEI among clinical laboratory workers. “We have limited workforce pipelines and we’re trying to recruit more people into laboratory medicine. You need to ensure your workforce is fostering an inclusive environment, not only to recruit them into lab medicine but also to retain them,” Noguez said.
Finally, the speakers will talk about DEI-related patient care gaps and share examples of successful efforts to fill them.
The session will be an interactive experience rather than a traditional lecture; it will integrate audience polling and scenario-based discussions that panelists and attendees will participate in together. “We’re allowing participants to apply concepts we’re talking about in real time and learn from peers facing similar challenges,” said Noguez.
The session is for people in various roles across the clinical laboratory, including leaders, pathologists, and front-line laboratorians. “Anyone who wants to strengthen organizational culture while also improving patient care,” Noguez said.
Overall, instead of just talking about DEI as an abstract concept, the speakers want to spur action. “We want to really help people to understand how DEI ties directly to metrics and connect metrics to tangible outcomes,” Noguez said.
Jen A. Miller is a freelance journalist who lives in Audubon, New Jersey. +Bluesky: @byjenamiller.bsky.social.
