Igniting clinical excellence: Trends and tactics for achieving measurably better healthcare outcomes

The following activity was originally delivered as an ADLM-hosted special session at ADLM 2025 in the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois on Tuesday, July 29, 2025 from 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. CT.

Description

Laboratory professionals are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change in healthcare—closing care gaps, transforming data into actionable insights, and advancing outcomes for patients, providers, payors, and health systems alike. But how do the most successful initiatives actually work in practice?

In this on-demand case-based session, you’ll hear directly from laboratory leaders on global best practice examples recognized through the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence award program, spanning over 80 initiatives across 32+ countries. As a partnering organization, ADLM is proud to spotlight real-world trends, tactics, and measurable strategies from the UNIVANTS program that delivered breakthrough results in clinical laboratories across the globe.

Target audience

This activity is designed for physicians, advanced practice professionals (NPs, PAs, RNs, etc.), lab supervisors, lab directors, lab managers, fellows, residents, other in-training individuals, and other clinical laboratory professionals who are seeking strategies that leverage clinical laboratories to improve healthcare outcomes.

Learning objectives

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the critical role of clinical laboratories in closing care gaps through data-driven, measurable best practices that benefit patients, providers, payors, and health systems.
• Navigate common challenges in defining, capturing, and linking outcome metrics across the care continuum, with a focus on lab-enabled insights.
• Apply proven strategies to lead cross-disciplinary teams, implement lab-informed initiatives, and track key performance indicators (direct and indirect) to drive clinical and operational improvements for teams, patients and communities.

Opening

Anthony Killeen, MD, BCh, PhD, DABCC, FADLM
ADLM President (August 2024 – July 2025)
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Moderator

Peter Kavsak, PhD, FCACB, FADLM, FCCS
Professor, McMaster University
Scientist, Hamilton Health Sciences
Clinical Chemist, Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre
Research Lead, Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program
Hamilton, ON (Canada)

Electric trends in laboratory medicine

Tricia Ravalico, BS
Director, Scientific Leadership and Global Education
Abbott Executive Lead, UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Program
Dallas, TX (United States)

Ignition Tactics: Keys to Success

Christine Schmotzer, MD
Executive Vice Chair, Pathology University Hospitals Cleveland
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH (United States)

Disclosures and statement of independence

The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly AACC) is dedicated to ensuring balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all educational activities. All participating planning committee members and faculty are required to disclose to the program audience any financial relationships related to the subject matter of this program. Disclosure information is reviewed in advance in order to manage and resolve any possible conflicts of interest. The intent of this disclosure is to provide participants with information on which they can make their own judgments.

The following faculty reported financial relationships:

• Peter Kavsak, PhD, FCACB, FADLM, FCCS
  • Honorarium/Expenses: Abbott, Siemens Healthcare, Thermo Fisher
  • Consultant fee: Roche
  • Grant/Research support: Beckman, Randox, Roche, Siemens Healthcare, Vital Biosciences
  • Committee/Board: Roche, Siemens Healthcare
  • IP/Royalty income: Randox (Dr. Kavsak listed as an inventor in the acute cardiovascular biomarker field.)
• Tricia Ravalico, BS
  • Stocks/Bonds: Abbott
  • Salary: Abbott
• Christine Schmotzer, MD
  • Honorarium/Expenses: Greiner BioOne
  • Committee/Board: Greiner BioOne, Medical Advisory Board Member

The following faculty reported no financial relationships:

• Anthony Killeen, MD, PhD, MSc

ADLM staff involved in the planning of this activity reported no financial relationships.

Content validity

All recommendations involving clinical medicine are based on evidence accepted within the profession of medicine as adequate justification for their indications and contraindications in the care of patients; AND/OR all scientific research referred to or reported in support or justification of a patient care recommendation conforms to generally accepted standards of experimental design, data collection, and analysis.

Acknowledgement of commercial support

This activity is not supported by educational grant(s) or other funds from any commercial supporter(s).

Accreditation statement

This activity is approved for a maximum 1.5 ACCENT® continuing education credits. Activity ID #4420. This activity was planned in accordance with ACCENT® Standards and Policies. Learners should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

ADLM is an approved provider of continuing education for clinical laboratory professionals in many global agencies and several US states including California, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. California clinical laboratory professionals requesting ACCENT credit must provide their license number for credit to be reported to the California Department of Public Health Laboratory Field Services. Florida clinical laboratory professionals requesting ACCENT credit must provide their license number for credit to be reported to CE Broker.

Successful completion statement

Verification of Participation certificates are provided to registered participants based on completion of the activity, in its entirety, and the activity evaluation. For questions regarding continuing education, please email [email protected].