Executive War College 2025 Roundup: An Extraordinary Time
Robert Michel and Cristy Reiter on the last day of the terrific conference.
There is no doubt about it: The 30th gathering of the Executive War College was an enlightening, fruitful – and even a little emotional as we recognized and celebrated Robert Michel and the impact he and his team has made in the industry. Record numbers, including both new and old faces, gathered in New Orleans on Monday, April 28, at the lab industry’s meeting-of-the-minds to learn from each other, share ideas, and express opinions of our life’s work during these equal parts exciting and volatile times.
Our Executive Team: Karen Saldaña, Jamie Papp, Bryan Firestone, Cristy Reiter, Nick Stainback, and Laurie Huard. (Missing: Lauren Sutton.)
Speaking of fresh faces, the U.S. HealthTek team descended on the most important conference of our industry with a team that included a few ourselves. Our VP of Marketing, Jamie Papp, is far from new to the industry, but he joined our team in November. Our VP of Technical Operations, Nick Stainback, also has nearly two decades in the business, but has been with us just under a year. Also joining Bryan Firestone and myself were our good friends Karen Saldaña (COO), Vicki DiFrancesco (Advisory Board Member), Lauren Sutton (Consultant), and Laurie Huard (Consultant). Also along was for the good times was our administrative assistant Sam Bender and marketing director Kevin Mitchell. We came ready, willing, and more than able, and I am proud and pleased to say our organization certainly took our own big slice of success from the conference.
All who could turned out for the opening reception, including Dr. Eric Glassy (center).
Grand Reception
It all started on Monday Night at the Welcome Reception. As typical, the crowd swelled quickly including most of the nearly 1,000 who came to attend the conference. As much of our business is done digitally, it is so refreshing to get some in-person time with friends and colleagues. A highlight was seeing Robert Michel make the rounds and just see the enormous respect he commands.
Casino Night was a blast – and well attended.
Casino Night
We rolled the dice figuratively and literally when we hosted a Casino Night and the Welcome reception. We were betting that at least some would enjoy the fun of gambling for charity and embrace the opportunity for further networking, but since nothing like that had been done before … well sure, we were a little nervous.
There were no losers – and we all raised money for three great charities!
Our anxiety quickly melted into euphoria within a half hour of the tables opening as we enjoyed seeing our peers gather around the craps, blackjack, and roulette tables. The vast majority played at least for a while, and more than we expected played until the end. It was a great time, and we thank all who participated as contributed to giving back to our charities. Because of you, checks are being cut for:
- Remote Area Medical (RAM) of Cumberland Counting, Virginia. This is a charity addressing the dental, vision, and medical needs of underserved communities in U.S. HealthTek’s home state.
- Americares. This national organization supports more than 1,000 free community health centers in our country.
- Second Harvest Food Bank. This NOLA-based organization provides food access, advocacy, education, and disaster response across southern Louisiana.
It was a full house for our panel discussion.
U.S. HealthTek’s AI Panel Discussion
Our panel discussion, Digital AI-Powered Labs: From Concept to Actionable Results featured Dr. Eric Glassy (Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center) and Lynn Brock (Chief Innovation Officer at Sagis Diagnostics) happened the first morning of the conference. Our room quickly filled up and it was standing room only – in fact I had to leave to make room for others!
It was moderated by our own Laurie Huard, who did a terrific job of organizing the wealth of material into a mere 50 minutes and keeping it all running smoothly. The session rigorously
The audience swarmed Dr. Eric Glassy and Lynn Brock after the session.
explained how labs can use AI and automation not just to conquer today’s challenges, but to lead into our future. A highlight that got a big, knowing laugh, is when Dr. Glassy spoke about “handwriting to text” technology, paired with a slide said, “A wise doctor once wrote … [indecipherable scribble].” We will be doing a separate in-depth article on this session later this month, but meanwhile, Diagnostic and Digital Health Executive Eliad Josephson wrote up a nice summary of our panel discussion here.
Robert Michel at the podium.
Michel’s State of the Industry Keynote
An annual highlight is always The Dark Report’s Robert Michel’s opening keynote, providing his insightful (and blunt) assessment of where we have been, where we are today, and where we are heading tomorrow. It opened on an emotional note with videos sent in by colleagues and admirers congratulating Michel’s 30 years at the helm of this organization. When he took the podium, he referenced how the Dark Intelligence Group was acquired by LabX Media Group in February, and while he will still be involved, he will be stepping back a bit. He assured the audience that LabX will be good curators of what we’ve come to know and expect.
Then with charts and data backing up his points on the talk titled “Healthcare at a Tipping Point: Why Lab Opportunities and Challenges in the Coming Years Will Be Different than Those of the Past Years,” he spoke about a plateau happening in medical service use. Because of the dramatic rise in consumer costs, more are putting off medical procedures that aren’t at the life-saving urgency level. Setting the tone for many of the other keynotes and breakout sessions, the call to action was for labs to get more proactive in tackling today’s challenges.
The information gathered at these sessions was vital to navigating our future.
Panel Discussions & Break-Out Sessions
The days were filled with informative sessions exploring the issues facing our industry today. Another General Session was “Moving the Clinical Lab into the Age of Precision Medicine and All Things Digital” presented by Sam Terese, CEO & President of Alverno Labs. This followed Michel’s keynote and really solidified the “getting practical with AI” theme. While approaches on AI varied, one key component was clear: before embarking on adapting and expanding AI, making sure your data is clean, accurate, and secure is the first step. The foundation must be laid accurately and by experienced professionals.
As always, it’s the spontaneous conversations that are the best.
An excellent Master Class, “New Revenue from Direct-to-Consumer Tests,” highlighted another theme and was a call-to-action for labs to embrace and adapt the post-COVID trend of patients wanting their information directly from labs. Related was the one that followed: “Lab Testing Close to Where Patients Live and Work” – Kathleen David, MT, Associate Director of Near Patient Testing at TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque gave an informative and enlighten test-case study on how that lab was supporting freestanding emergency rooms at the urgent cares that are now so ubiquitous.
There were at least a dozen more important sessions, and I expect summaries to show up in LinkedIn and individual companies’ websites in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for them.
U.S. HealthTek’s Strand 4 was bustling with meetings.
Action in Strand 4
One of the many improvements made this year was the lay-out of the various gatherings. We were happy to make our Benefactor home in Strand 4, and our meeting room was filled with popcorn, SWAG, and most importantly, engaging conversation. We had a steady stream of industry professionals stopping by for discussions that emphasized collaboration – the sharing of information and perspective rather than be a traditional “sales call.” We take this approach intentionally, as we feel the exchange of ideas and sharing of perspectives is what is most needed in this industry. It is also the foundation of partnership and mutual success.
Dinners with Clients and Friends
A big part of the EWC2025 advantage continued into the evening as clients (present and future) and long-time colleagues were wined and dined at the many marvelous restaurants in the NOLA. It’s so nice to have the opportunity of reuniting with old friends and establishing ties with new ones. As we always say, the formal meetings and panel discussions are significant, but it’s the ability to get personal time with each other and increase our perspective on not only business, but life that is imperative.
We’re excited about the partnerships we reinforced or newly established at the #30EWC!
The Future
We returned from the 30th Executive War College refreshed and invigorated, filled with inspired ideas, novel plans, and a sweeping action item list as the U.S. HealthTek teams commits to our future. One thing we have learned is that there are serious solutions to complicated issues needed, and we look forward to finding those solutions together with those who want to discuss what this new age of “success” will look like.