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Inside the Lab

American Society for Clinical Pathology

ASCP's podcast for all things laboratory--if it's happening inside the lab, we're talking about it.

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21 episodes
monthly
Avg 51 min
English

Episodes 21

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S6 · E6
Wednesday · 54 min
Emerging Biomarkers in Endometrial Cancer
Endometrial cancer care is increasingly shaped by molecular information, making biomarker testing an essential part of treatment planning for patients with advanced or recurrent disease. In this episode of Inside the Lab, host Dr. Ali Brown, CEO of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, speaks with Dr. Casey Cosgrove, a gynecologic oncologist at The Ohio State University, and Dr. Meg Dibbern, a breast and gynecologic pathologist at Emory University, about how biomarkers including MMR/MSI, POLE, p53, and HER2 can help define tumor biology, inform prognosis, and guide systemic treatment decisions. The guests explore how testing across immunohistochemistry, PCR, and next-generation sequencing fits into real-world laboratory workflows and how pathology and oncology teams can work together to ensure results are comprehensive, timely, and actionable. The discussion also considers the challenges of translating evolving clinical guidelines into practice and the importance of communication between the laboratory, clinicians, and patients as treatment options continue to expand. To claim credit for listening to this episode, please click here.
S6 · E5
August 24 · 37 min
From STEM to STAT: Introducing the Next Generation to Laboratory Medicine
Laboratory medicine plays an essential role in healthcare, yet many children grow up with little awareness of what happens in the clinical laboratory—or the wide range of careers that make diagnosis possible. In this episode, the creators of STEM to STAT discuss their efforts to introduce children to laboratory medicine early, helping young learners connect STEM education with real-world healthcare and imagine themselves as the scientists and laboratory professionals of the future. The conversation explores why visibility matters, how storytelling and educational resources can reshape perceptions of the laboratory, and how STEM to STAT hopes to build a more informed and inclusive pathway into laboratory medicine. Host David Ritter is joined by STEM to STAT cofounders Stephanie Whitehead, Aaron Odegard, and Melody Nelson. To recieve CME/CMLE credit for listening, please click here.
S6 · E4
June 15 · 54 min
Rethinking Cervical Cancer Screening in a Changing Diagnostic Landscape
In this episode of Inside the Lab, Patricia Delgado and Liz Etkin-Kramer explore the evolving landscape of cervical cancer screening amid recent guideline updates emphasizing primary HPV testing, self-collection, and revised screening exit criteria. The conversation examines the challenges posed by HPV-negative cervical cancers and highlights the importance of close collaboration between pathology and OB-GYN teams when screening results, clinical findings, and patient presentation do not align neatly. Through a detailed case discussion, the guests describe how ongoing communication and iterative review between specialties ultimately leads to improved diagnostic accuracy in difficult cases, underscoring the value of interdisciplinary partnership in complex gynecologic cases. Key Takeaways Recent cervical cancer screening updates are not yet fully harmonized across major professional organizations, creating a transitional landscape that clinicians and laboratories must navigate carefully. HPV-negative cervical lesions and cancers can present significant diagnostic challenges, particularly when standard screening results do not match clinical suspicion. Strong, iterative collaboration between OB-GYNs and pathologists can be critical for resolving complex cases and achieving accurate diagnoses, as illustrated by the discussion of lobular endocervical glandular hyperplasia.
S6 · E3
April 10 · 43 min
Annual Meeting Special Episode – Workforce and Recruitment in Pathology
Recorded live at the 2025 ASCP Annual Meeting in Atlanta, this special episode of Inside the Lab brings together a diverse panel—a practicing pathologist, two medical students, and a resident—to explore one of the profession’s most urgent challenges: the pathology workforce shortage. Against the backdrop of ASCP workforce data showing a growing gap between supply and demand, the guests share firsthand perspectives on why students discover pathology late, how misconceptions persist, and what it takes to cultivate interest in a specialty that underpins 70% of medical decision-making. Their discussion spans everything from pipeline barriers and visibility gaps to influential moments of mentorship that sparked their own career trajectories. The panel also delves into the future—how medical schools might better integrate pathology into mandatory curricula, how social media and community engagement can reshape public perception, and how pathologists can meaningfully mentor the next generation earlier in their training. From high-impact outreach efforts to the energizing role of professional communities, the group highlights actionable strategies for securing the future health of the field. The result is an inspiring, candid conversation about why pathology is a calling, what keeps trainees engaged, and how everyone in the profession can contribute to strengthening the workforce.
S6 · E2
February 5 · 41 min
Green Labs
In this episode of Inside the Lab, host David Ritter kicks off a new series on corporate responsibility with a timely conversation about Green Labs. Joined by Dr. Ilyssa Gordon and Dr. Moira Larsen, the discussion revisits how far laboratory sustainability has come since Dr. Gordon’s 2021 appearance on the show and examines what has changed over the last four years. The episode explores what “green labs” really mean in the context of clinical and pathology laboratories, from life-cycle assessments that quantify the carbon footprint of common workflows to system-level strategies that integrate sustainability into corporate responsibility frameworks. Dr. Gordon shares insights from her research on the environmental impact of GI biopsy processing and discusses how data-driven approaches can influence decision-making at the bench. Dr. Larsen outlines how green initiatives must be built into lab’s missions and financials in order to truly take hold, as well as the importance of partnering with aligned partners when sourcing materials. Throughout the conversation, the guests emphasize practical, achievable actions—both at the institutional and individual levels—while addressing the realities facing today’s lab professionals. The episode concludes on an optimistic note, highlighting what’s currently inspiring leaders in laboratory sustainability and reinforcing the idea that meaningful progress is possible, even in resource-constrained environments.
S6 · E1
January 9 · 49 min
Advances in NSCLC Biomarker Testing
The current landscape of testing for NSCLC is complex, with many new biomarkers emerging rapidly, more points during which testing is possible, and precision drug treatments available on the basis of findings from biomarker testing. While promising for patients, the result of this rapidly changing landscape is confusion from interdisciplinary care teams as to what testing is necessary and when, who in multidisciplinary care teams should be ordering new tests and when, and what workflows are necessary for labs. Host David Ritter, MA is joined by Dr. Ying-Chun Lo and Dr. Mamatha Chivuluka to discuss what things pathologists and lab professionals need to know about emerging biomarkers for NSCLC. In this conversation, the panel reflects on how NSCLC biomarker testing has evolved over the past decade, highlighting the shift from limited, sequential testing to guideline-recommended broad molecular profiling. Drs. Lo and Chivuluka explore the clinical relevance of emerging biomarkers such as HER2, TROP2, and HER3, and discuss how new targeted therapies are influencing testing strategies in real-world practice. They also examine practical considerations for laboratories, including platform selection across IHC, PCR, and NGS, approaches to tissue stewardship in small lung biopsies, and the growing leadership role of pathologists in multidisciplinary teams to ensure timely, guideline-concordant, and equitable access to biomarker testing for patients with NSCLC.
S5 · E10
Dec 8, 2025 · 42 min
Mia the Marvelous Lab Explorer: Using Children's Media to Inspire the Next Generation of Lab Leaders
Host David Ritter, MA is joined by Lotte Mulder, PhD and Kamran Mirza, MD, PhD, FASCP to discuss their new book, Mia the Marvelous Lab Explorer. The adventure follows Mia, a superhero and scientist, who uses laboratory science to explain why a friend has fallen ill with leukemia. The book targets children ages 5 to 9 years and balances striking entertaining and engaging tone with explaining scientific concepts accurately to a younger audience. Their conversation of the book expands into strategies for fostering engagement in laboratory science across age groups, how children’s literature can highlight the role of the lab to parents as well as younger readers, and how the format of a children's book fits into the undeclared student to laboratory professional pipeline ASCP is working to create. Additionally, there is currently a fundraiser underway to donate 1,000 copies of the book to pediatricians' offices, libraries, and schools under the hashtag #MissionMarvelous. If you would like to contribute to the fundraiser, you can do so here: miathemarvelous.com. The fundraiser runs through February 16, 2026.
S5 · E9
Nov 19, 2025 · 53 min
Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests: What We've Learned
Interim CEO of ASCP and host Dr. Ali Brown sits down with Dr. Eric Konnick and Michelle Campbell, MLS(ASCP) to discuss lessons learned from the latest efforts to place laboratory developed tests under FDA oversight. For listeners unfamiliar with LDTs, they begin by establishing what LDTs are and what their value to the lab and patient safety are before debunking common misunderstandings cited by patient advocacy groups regarding their accuracy, validity, and the transparency with which they’re developed. They go on to define what FDA oversight would mean for laboratories in terms of cost, time, and labor, contextualizing these added costs in ongoing workforce shortages in the lab. They close their conversation by spotlighting which efforts ASCP and similar organizations made to advocate for the lab were most successful, and describe alternative strategies for updating laboratory regulations, such as modernizing CLIA.
S5 · E8
Oct 31, 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
Case Studies in Laboratory Management
Host Constantine “Aki” Kanakis, MD is joined by Brittany Teeter and Sean to provide lessons learned and real-world takeaways from the world of laboratory management. This episode offers a glimpse into what seasoned lab managers learned across the course of their careers and provides concrete takeaways for lab managers at any stage of their careers on preparing for inspections, creating staff buy in for workflow updates, and relating the success of the lab to a hospital’s financial outcome when interfacing with C-suite executives. Their conversation offers fresh perspective on how to approach meeting regulatory standards as opportunities for improvement rather than mere hurdles to clear. In this episode, their discussion covers disaster preparedness, addressing both how labs can prepare proactively for the foreseeable and how to reactively respond to the unforeseeable. They provide tips on everything from preparing for novel infectious outbreaks to stocking enough extension cords and flashlights in the event of power outages. They include valuable anecdotes about times thing went wrong in their lab, and what they did to react in a state of crisis.
S5 · E7
Oct 1, 2025 · 59 min
Topics in Transfusion Medicine
In this episode of Inside the Lab, host Constantine Kanakis is joined by former ASCP president and Director of Transfusion Medicine at VCU Dr. Kimberly Sanford to discuss topics in transfusion medicine. This one-on-one conversation between two transfusion experts covers a wide variety of contemporary issues in transfusion medicine, including best practices in apheresis, logistical issues associated with pre-hospital transfusion services, and strategies for addressing blood shortages. Their conversation also touches on how to compassionately discuss problems with so-called “vaccine-negative blood” with patients in the context of recent legislation regarding this, and how transfusion experts can best ration limited blood supplies during periods of scarcity.
S5 · E6
Sep 2, 2025 · 53 min
Interviews with Medical Examiners
In this episode of Inside the Lab, ASCP CMO and CEO Dr. Ali Brown is joined by Drs. Nicole Jackson and Greg Davis to discuss current topics in forensic pathology. In their fascinating and wide ranging discussion, they highlight the often overlooked role of forensic pathologists in offering empathy, care, and advice to the grieving relatives of their deceased patients, the need for expanded autopsy requirements in medical school rotations, and the utility of forensic training to anyone who needs to understand anatomy. Listeners will come away from this episode with an appreciation of the emotional intelligence required to work as a forensic pathologist, as well as the deeply rewarding interpersonal interactions that forensic pathologists can have through autopsy pathology. They will also appreciate the difficulties that workforce shortages pose for the practice of medicine generally. Listeners will also become aware of strategies for attracting the next generation of forensic pathologists in a field critical to medical practice.
S5 · E5
Jun 26, 2025 · 56 min
The Pathology of Rare Diseases
Host Kelly Swails interviews Dr. Brad Brimhall and genetic counselor Megan Maxwell from the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio to discuss challenges with and strategies for the diagnosis of rare diseases. Their discussion covers topics like the advantages of proactively using genetic testing to identify gene markers at the outset of care, the possibilities of artificial intelligence in identifying markers of rare diseases, and the role of pathologists in a multi-disciplinary care team - as well as the need for adequate communication and a holistic approach within that care team. Collectively, our guests describe how these insights can be used to shorten a patient's "diagnostic odyssey."
S5 · E4
May 30, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
AI and Pathology: A short history and what comes next
In this special episode of Inside the Lab, producer and host David Ritter does a dive into the history of efforts to integrate AI into the practice of healthcare. He’s joined by MD/PhD candidate Rahim Hirani, who discusses the history of efforts to automate diagnostic decision making in healthcare all the way back to the 1950s, and how these efforts were qualitatively different from current tools like large language models. Then, he’s joined by Dr. Melody Nelson from the who discusses contemporary issues with applying modern AI tools in the context of the practice of pathology.
S5 · E3
Apr 16, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Emerging Respiratory Viruses
Inside the Lab is joined by experts Drs. Hannah Wang from the Cleveland Clinic and Rodney Rohde from Texas State University to discuss emerging respiratory viruses. Their discussion begins with lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and an overview of what technologies have emerged since. They go on to discuss the virology and surveillance strategies for H5N1 and RSV, as well as vaccine hesitancy and its impact in the treatment of measles.
S5 · E2
Feb 28, 2025 · 47 min
Challenges for Lab Professionals to Expect in 2025
In this episode of Inside the Lab, Dr. Ali Brown sits down with guests Sean Tucker, MLS(ASCP)CM and Laura Severs, MHA, MLS(ASCP)CM to discuss their predictions for what 2025 holds for laboratory professionals. Topics discussed include: How workforce trends will continue in the near future and what strategies may work for addressing them; What to expect with automation and what pros and cons automation holds for laboratorians; What challenges, risks, and benefits cybersecurity holds for laboratory professionals, particular as digital pathology becomes more prevalent; What's coming with AI and what it means for the practice of laboratory medicine.
S5 · E1
Jan 15, 2025 · 50 min
Setting Up a Laboratory Test Stewardship Program
In this episode of Inside the Lab, guests Jane Dickerson, PhD and Elise Occhipinti, MD join host Kelly Swails to discuss the creation and maintenance of laboratory test stewardship programs. Topics covered include: How and why your organization should set up a stewardship program Involving stakeholders in the process The essential components of a success program Metrics and key performance indicators to track Resources, guidelines, and toolkits for those looking to create their own program
S4 · E8
Nov 7, 2024 · 52 min
Advances in I-O Biomarkers
While the rapid evolution of I-O continues to bring unprecedented change to the way cancer is treated, there are significant gaps impacting the laboratory team regarding the examination of resection specimens following neoadjuvant immunotherapy and staying abreast of advances in I-O biomarker testing. This episode discusses advances in I-O biomarker testing, advantages and limitations of some key I-O biomarkers, and practical ways that pathologists and laboratory professionals can improve their I-O biomarker testing workflows to optimize patient care. Topics discussed include: Recent advances in immune-oncology (I-O) biomarker testing Advantages and limitations of IO biomarkers Addressing challenges related to IO biomarkers Improving IO biomarker workflows Best practices for collaboration with the multidisciplinary cancer care team
S4 · E7
Oct 21, 2024 · 35 min
Newly FDA Approved Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Testing: How to Implement Such Tests in Core Laboratory?
The diagnostic paradigm for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has rapidly shifted in the last five years as fluid-based biomarker testing has emerged as a reliable, accurate, and accessible means to detect amyloid pathology when evaluating a patient for cognitive decline. This podcast is designed to help pathologists and laboratory professionals gain an understanding of plasma testing for markers such as Abeta40/42, P-tau181, and P-tau217 which are rapidly appearing in the commercial space and how healthcare providers have begun incorporating these tests into routine neurology practice. This podcast will help participants to understand the advantages and limitations of these assays as well as their potential application when a physician is evaluating a patient for AD.
S4 · E6
Aug 15, 2024 · 52 min
Promoting Diagnostic Excellence by Improving the Communication of Urgent and Unexpected Diagnoses in Anatomic Pathology
Communicating imperative diagnoses effectively can often be a daunting challenge. It’s a crucial and delicate step that takes practice and know-how to do well and can be one of the most important actions taken with patients. That’s why a panel of experts have gotten together to discuss the current practices, gaps, and best practices for communication of urgent and significant/unexpected diagnoses in anatomic pathology. The Promoting Diagnostic Excellence by Improving the Communication of Urgent and Unexpected Diagnoses in Anatomic Pathology podcast is designed to support the collaboration with clinical partners as well as to notice actionable opportunities where the communication of urgent and significant/unexpected diagnoses in anatomic pathology may be improved. You will learn to: Understand current guidelines and practices for communication of urgent and unexpected diagnosis in anatomic pathology. Discuss high-priority communication barriers. Discuss best practices and recommendations for effective and timely communication of urgent and significant/unexpected diagnoses.
S4 · E5
May 20, 2024 · 59 min
Women Trailblazers in a Multigenerational Workplace
Women make up a majority of the workforce in pathology yet lag behind men in leadership roles. What are the consequences of this for women working in pathology today, and what can be done? In this episode of Inside the Lab, Drs. Melissa Upton and Kimberly Sanford share a warm conversation in which they reflect on their long and varied careers, describe the unique challenges they faced over their careers, and discuss their accomplishments as trailblazers themselves. Our guests describe the value of finding mentors, They also describe the opportunities for the future of pathology, particularly in the context of working in a multigenerational workforce with evolving expectations of workplace culture.

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