The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM, formerly AACC), welcomed thousands of laboratory experts to ADLM 2024 (formerly the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo) from July 28-August 1.
The meeting featured groundbreaking advances in diagnostic research and technology that exemplify the essential role that the field of laboratory medicine plays in patient care.
As of Thursday, August 1, 18,000 laboratory medicine professionals had registered for ADLM 2024, a 6% increase in attendance since the last time the ADLM Annual Meeting was in Chicago in 2022.
One highlight of the meeting was a special session where representatives from ADLM, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association detailed how the FDA’s final rule placing laboratory developed tests under FDA oversight will negatively impact patient care. The session featured a caregiver and patient advocate who shared her perspective on why laboratory developed tests are crucial to timely diagnoses and treatment.
Attendees also had the opportunity to see five plenary talks led by life sciences pioneers.
In the opening plenary, Dr. Patrick Bossuyt — the 2024 Wallace H. Coulter Lectureship awardee — drew on his experiences leading efforts to improve diagnostic tests to make a compelling case for why we need strong clinical trials of laboratory tests.
On Monday, Dr. Kojo S.J. Elenitoba-Johnson, chair of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, described how proteomic data can help healthcare professionals better understand how lymphomas form and drive development of precision oncology therapies.
Tuesday’s plenary speaker, Dr. Ron H.N. van Schaik, discussed the successes and challenges of implementing pharmacogenetics as a diagnostic tool in routine healthcare. Van Schaik is head of the department of clinical chemistry at Erasmus MC - University Medical Center Rotterdam.
On Wednesday, Dr. Sharon Hillier, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, explored the development of new products for HIV prevention, including those that can be used on demand and those that would minimize systemic exposure to antiretroviral drugs.
In the closing keynote, Dr. Diana Greene Foster, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, discussed the mental health, physical health, and socioeconomic consequences affecting people who are unable to get an abortion.
As part of ADLM’s Disruptive Technology Award competition, biotech innovators presented novel technologies that could help more patients get accurate diagnoses. Mercy BioAnalytics won the competition with its liquid biopsy platform that detects ovarian cancer in its earliest stages by measuring tumor-derived extracellular vesicles.
The ADLM 2024 Clinical Lab Expo boasted nearly 900 exhibitors and covered an astonishing 271,003 net square feet — a 5% increase in exhibit space since the last time the meeting was held in Chicago. This dynamic exhibit featured cutting-edge tests from all laboratory medicine disciplines, including artificial intelligence, molecular diagnostics, automation, point-of-care testing, mass spectrometry, mobile health, and much more.
ADLM 2025 will be held in Chicago from July 27-31, 2025.
