William Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., Discusses Leadership Challenges for Laboratory Medicine

By Kelley Luedke • April 13, 2017

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William Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and President of Mayo Medical Laboratories, recently presented "Leadership Challenges for Laboratory Medicine" at the 13th Annual Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine conference held in Birmingham, UK. An article published in European Hospital, highlights his presentation.

Dr. Morice discussed the changing health care environment and challenges clinical laboratory medicine providers are facing, such as rising demand, falling reimbursement, technological innovation, enhanced quality and governance, and the need to recruit and retain a skilled workforce.

According to Dr. Morice, laboratories need to reach out to partners, offering their knowledge to a wider sphere, and also seek to exert influence if they are to take a leadership, rather than "back-office," role. However, as Dr. Morice said, this can also be a challenge.

"When I took the job [as chair of the department], we were not seen as an integral part of our practice care activities, although laboratory testing provides a significant proportion of Mayo Clinic’s top line and bottom line revenue."

In his presentation, Dr. Morice encouraged attendees to build bridges and collaborations with partners to become part of the solution process. For example, Mayo laboratories are engaging with partners to apply knowledge into the systems of partner organizations and bring money back into the already financially strong department, which then is used to support the research and education mission of Mayo Clinic.

"We have moved to a period of frequent change, particularly with next-generation sequencing, and we have to be much more proactive about understanding what is happening in our environment and then participating in it from a leadership perspective," Dr. Morice concluded.

"We have to get people engaged so we feel we are driving some of the change, rather than just responding to it."

Read the full article on healthcare-in-europe.com.

Kelley Luedke

Kelley Luedke is a Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She is the principle editor and writer of Insights and leads social media and direct marketing strategy. Kelley has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2013. Outside of work, you can find Kelley running, traveling, playing with her kitty, and exploring new foods.