Clinical diagnostics, explained from the working lab.
Answers from the Lab follows clinical diagnostics as science, policy, data, and lab operations meet patient decisions. Its recent conversations move from PAMA and AI to preeclampsia testing, metagenomics, therapeutic diagnostics, and logistics.
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Answers from the Lab is a clinical diagnostics show with the posture of a serious working conversation. It centers Mayo Clinic Laboratories and the people translating new tests, digital tools, policy changes, and laboratory systems into patient care. The show’s strongest episodes do not treat diagnostics as a narrow technical service. They frame testing as a chain of decisions, from specimen movement and data interpretation to reimbursement, stewardship, trust, and bedside impact. A typical recent episode starts with what is new and noteworthy in the field, then moves into a deeper interview about a specific diagnostic problem. That structure gives the series a useful rhythm. It can address PAMA reform and the clinical lab fee schedule in one stretch, then turn toward preeclampsia management, organ transplant test menus, peripheral neuropathy research, or metagenomic sequencing. The technical language is real, but it is usually anchored to clinical stakes. AI and digital diagnostics are handled with similar restraint. The series acknowledges the speed of large language models and data-driven tools, while returning to the harder question of how clinicians build enough trust to act on new signals. That balance matters. The show is optimistic about innovation, but it keeps asking how new tests are developed, measured, delivered, paid for, and used safely. Dr. Bobbi Pritt appears as a recurring clinical interviewer, bringing microbiology and laboratory leadership context to the conversations. Dr. Bill Maurice is a frequent presence on policy, strategy, innovation, and industry pressures. Other recent discussions bring in physicians and colleagues focused on obstetrics and gynecology, dermatology, clinical pathology, microbiology, logistics, and biopharma diagnostics. The result is practical rather than dramatic. It suits professionals who care about the machinery behind better answers: laboratorians, clinicians, health-system leaders, diagnostics teams, and scientifically literate listeners following how testing changes care. The show’s value is its habit of connecting the test to the workflow, the workflow to the institution, and the institution to the patient.
Made for: Built for laboratorians, clinicians, diagnostics professionals, health-system leaders, and scientifically curious listeners who want practical context behind emerging tests and lab policy. It also suits anyone tracking how AI, reimbursement, logistics, and test development affect patient care.
What sets it apart: The series stands apart by tying new diagnostic science to implementation: workflow, trust, policy, reimbursement, stewardship, and clinical use. It treats laboratory medicine as an operational and patient-care discipline, not just a stream of discoveries.
A Mayo Clinic curated podcast sharing Mayo Clinic knowledge and advancements on the state of testing, science, and people who are making it happen behind the scenes.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Answers from the Lab makes diagnostic science legible by tracing how laboratory methods become evidence for real clinical decisions.
Dr. Bobbi Pritt treats laboratory medicine as a chain of decisions rather than a collection of test results. Recent installments pair a discussion of developments in clinical diagnostics with a focused specialist interview, giving policy, technology, and patient care room to…
The spinal-fluid sequencing workflow is the plot, if your favorite mystery starts with a specimen.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at diagnostics moving from digitized workflow to data-driven clinical insight.
This episode gives clinical diagnostics a practical reality check, with Dr. Bobbi Pritt and Dr. Bill Maurice weighing Microsoft's launch of Copilot Health against the wider question of how AI is being used for healthcare advice.
A grounded look at how laboratory innovation moves into obstetric care.
This single-episode review frames laboratory innovation through the people trying to move tests from development into real patient care. Dr. Bill Maurice's discussion of systematized test development gives the episode its broader institutional lens, while Dr.
Diagnostics and therapeutics are paired in a clear, timely episode led by the people doing the work.
Answers from the Lab takes a broad step that works well, pairing recent clinical-diagnostics news with a closer look at therapeutics. Dr. Bobbi Pritt leads the conversation first with Dr. Bill Maurice and then with Dr.
A clear case for keeping the lab close to the care it serves.
Answers from the Lab makes a clear case for why laboratories remain central to care, turning a health system question into something practical and easy to follow. Dr. Bobbi Pritt and Dr.
A lab-focused look at how alpha-synuclein testing is refining diagnosis in neurodegenerative disease.
This episode offers a clear, topic-first look at how tests for misfolded alpha-synuclein are helping separate Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia, and multiple system atrophy.
A focused look at how symptom patterns guide neuropathy testing and clinical decision-making.
Peripheral neuropathy can be hard to pin down because the same broad complaint may point to very different causes. This Answers from the Lab episode keeps its focus on the testing logic, with Dr.
A clear tour from diagnostics policy to metagenomic sequencing in cerebral spinal fluid.
The episode moves from a clinical diagnostics policy discussion into a careful look at metagenomic sequencing of cerebral spinal fluid for meningitis and encephalitis. Dr. Bobbi Pritt leads the conversation, Dr. Bill Maurice covers the PAMA update, and Dr.
Critical care evidence, carefully talked through.
Oncology evidence translated into clinical decisions.
Clinical research, reduced to its practical signal.
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Mayo Clinic experts discuss the whole exome sequencing reflex test, a cost-effective diagnostic tool for hereditary disorders.
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Host Bobbi Pritt and guests discuss a diagnostic tool for preeclampsia that helps extend pregnancy and improve outcomes, along with updates from the American Clinical Laboratory Association.
Mayo Clinic experts discuss a novel urine test for inherited nerve disorders and comprehensive testing for organ transplant patients.
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Answers from the Lab opens with Dr.
This episode discusses Mayo Clinic Laboratories' whole exome sequencing reflex test (WSPR) for cost-effective diagnosis of hereditary disorders.
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Bill Maurice, President and CEO of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, discusses a white paper that links health system ownership of a laboratory to five financial outcomes, including 1.4% higher compound annual revenue growth.
["Answers from the Lab centers on Mayo Clinic Laboratories' collaboration with Amprion and the Samplify alpha-synuclein test for neurodegenerative disease.