Tricia Ravalico is on a mission to highlight the true meaning and worth of what goes on inside pathology laboratories; “I think one of the most significant questions that lab medicine as a whole industry has been challenged with is proving its value,” she said.

“Laboratory medicine, from my perspective, and for those that are very passionate about the industry, is the future of medicine.”

As Global Director of Scientific Leadership and Education, Core Diagnostics at Abbott, Ms Ravalico has created ways to recognise and maximise the expertise and contribution of laboratory medicine in healthcare. UNIVANTS is an awards program that recognises excellence in healthcare collaboration.

“The reason I started UNIVANTS was because I recognised that great best practices were happening around the world, but they were happening as pockets of excellence,” she said, “People are so busy trying to do the best things for patient care that a lot of their evidence, messaging, and success stories weren't being amplified in a way that would help inspire other teams to do the same.”

The awards program has now been running for five years. Although it is created and funded by Abbott, judging is the responsibility of partner organisations who provide an extensive, independent panel of judges spanning all facets of medicine including health policy, technology, healthcare quality, laboratory medicine, health economics and patient voices.

Each year, the awards recognise three top global winners. Applications are blinded and there are specific criteria that an application must meet to be considered for an award or commendation.

Criteria are focused on collaborative projects involving laboratory medicine and other healthcare professionals outside the lab, and that demonstrate a measurable impact to patients, payors, clinicians, and health systems.

Ms Ravalico noted that many of those who apply are not looking for glory; “The people who apply, they tend to be unsung heroes. They're not applying to get the award. They're applying because they care so much about patient care that they want to see their best practice replicated,” she said.

Applications that do not make the top winning spots may still receive recognition of distinction or achievement by judges. Therefore, since the awards began, 64 best practices have been recognised with some level within the program. This means UNIVANTS is now one of the largest healthcare team awards and is possibly the largest body of evidence that supports the importance of laboratory medicine in healthcare.

The winners of the 2022 UNIVANTS awards were announced in the last week of June 2023.

Ms Ravalico said: “What I love about the award is that the applicants are very diverse, we've seen everything from trying to improve emergency flow for chest pain patients in New Zealand, to remote care in Africa and Saudi Arabia. This year is no different. The top three winners span 3 totally different disease states in three different regions of the world.

It really shows the diverse power of laboratory medicine, and the importance of integrating the discipline into strategic initiatives that help health-centred organisations to drive care. So, we’re really excited about this year's winners.”

The awards are annual, and the 2023 round of applications opened on 1^st August 2023.

Ms Ravalico is proud of the best practices the awards have brought to light and believes that elevating these innovations can inspire better connectivity in healthcare, which will ultimately improve patient care. She believes pathology plays a key role in shifting the focus from treating sickness to promoting good health. She said:

“We're no longer talking about illness, we're talking about wellness. If we change that paradigm shift and really take advantage of the power of lab medicine, and don't see it in transactional terms, but strategic terms for how it can change clinical care pathways, we end up with beautiful outcomes.

What's so exciting in healthcare is that there are opportunities every which way we go. That's the value of pathology. And if we just leverage it, maximise it, implement it, speak about it, amplify it, we can go far together.”