PLUGS Podcast

PLUGS
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The PLUGS Podcast aims to empower healthcare providers, clinical laboratories, insurance plans, and patients by enhancing lab stewardship.  Laboratory stewardship has five key improvement goals: 1) enhanced access to testing, 2) appropriate and accurate test ordering, 3) timely retrieval of test results, 4) correct result interpretation, and 5) financial alignment between patients, labs and payers. Financial alignment means that patients are protected from financial toxicity, labs are paid fairly, and insurance companies do not pay for wasteful test practices.  Through insightful discussions, expert guidance, and valuable resources, the PLUGS Podcast is dedicated to supporting all stakeholders in navigating the complexities of clinical lab stewardship, ultimately promoting both better patient outcomes and financial security.

  1. 2d ago

    Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) Tests: Navigating the Benefit, Harm, Payment, and Uncertainty

    Drs. Geoff Baird and Mike Astion discuss the current promises and pitfalls  of MCED testing in the USA including issues of cancer detection, overdiagnosis, costs, and insurance payments.  Learning Objectives:  After listening to the podcast the listener will be able to: Describe the societal tradeoff in implementing wide scale population cancer screening for 50 cancersList two downstream costs if the MCED screening test is positiveExplain the implications and requirements of the Nancy Gardner Sewell Law regarding payment for cancer screening by the government and insurance companies.Describe the opposing points of view regarding the results of the  National Health Service clinical trial in the United Kingdom. PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  2. Aug 4

    PLUGS Live at the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine (ADLM)

    Summary. This episode of the PLUGS podcast was recorded live at ADLM 2026. PLUGS members came to the PLUGS tradeshow booth to post questions on our question board and participate in live Q&A. The answers were provided by University of Washington faculty as well as PLUGS members. Popular topics were covered, and there were fun interactions. Relax and have a listen. Episode Index 2:00 - CBCs: Asking for too many Pathologist reviews 5:00 - Too much serum folate testing 7:00 - Improved naming of tests: Improvement with surprises 13:00 - Lipase, Amylase, Isoamylase 15:00 - Sendouts: From zero stewardship to effective stewardship 19:00 - Pathologists who do not love stewardship 23:00 - Gaining early wins in a newer stewardship program 26:00 - Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate: use and misuse 33:00 - Yelling and screaming in conflict management 35:00 - Disruptive behavior 36:30 - When unusual tests are demanded by patients Learning Objectives: 1. List two projects which are likely to be successful in early stewardship efforts List 3 common tasks in laboratory stewardship that can be performed with AI. 2. Describe two ways to achieve stewardship objectives even if pathologists are not enthusiastic about stewardship. 3. Describe a successful approach to addressing the problem of boutique labs that solicit physician business directly rather than through your stewardship program 4. Compare and contrast “yelling and screaming” with more appropriate methods of conflict management in lab stewardship. PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  3. May 22

    AI in Lab Medicine and Lab Stewardship: Timesaver, Gamechanger, Panic-maker

    Summary. In this episode of the PLUGS podcast, Mike Astion interviews Dr. Geoff Baird about AI in the Lab. Over the last year, Geoff and a few other University of Washington faculty members have been intensely studying and implementing AI in daily work. Geoff is on a quest to integrate AI into the UW Dept of Laboratory and Pathology. In this podcast, we discuss key aspects of this work. We first focus on some practical uses of AI that will resonate with PLUGS members. Then, Geoff ventures into applications that can significantly change the way we work. For more information on PLUGS: https://www.schplugs.org For more information on Medical Training Solutions: https://www.medtraining.org/ Learning Objectives: 1. List three common tasks in laboratory stewardship that can be performed with AI. 2. Compare and contrast basic AI that uses prompts to help with repetitive tasks and agentic AI, which can do complex tasks. 3. Name a barrier to the implementation of AI in the clinical lab. PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  4. Mar 26

    Conflict Management and Apology in Laboratory Stewardship

    In this 11th edition of the PLUGS podcast, Drs. Jane Dickerson, Mike Astion and Geoff Baird work through cases of conflict management and apology related to laboratory stewardship. The cases come from PLUGS members and add depth to our recent PLUGS National Webinar on the same topic. The cases cover disruptive physicians, structured apologies, overly large test panels, special test requests, point-of-care testing, screaming in the car, and much more. Have a listen. Learning Objectives: List two or three common conflicts in laboratory stewardship.Describe the components of a structured apology, emphasizing the main needs of patients.Name three common conflict management tactics and apply them to a case regarding a disruptive physician, or a case of a physician who wants to order a test that is not on the test menu.PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  5. Jan 26

    Laboratory Genetic Counselors to the Rescue

    In this 10th edition of the PLUGS podcast Dr. Mike Astion interviews Paige Haas and Darci Sternen, who are Laboratory Genetic Counselors in the Dept of Laboratories at Seattle Childrens Hospital. Paige and Darci are active in our clinical laboratory practice and in our PLUGS program where they are involved in helping clients, providing education, and in policy making. The conversation with Darci and Paige covers a number of topics including differentiating the role of Lab genetic counselors from clinic-based genetic counselors. In addition, we discuss applying lab stewardship strategies to reduce low-value testing, as well as to obtain optimal genetic testing while reducing denials for that testing. PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  6. 12/01/2025

    14 years of PLUGS: Lessons, Relationships, and Progress

    In this holiday edition of the PLUGS podcast, Drs. Jane Dickerson, Mike Astion and Geoff Baird reflect on the history and learnings from PLUGS, as well as from the stewardship practices at the University of Washington, Seattle Childrens and PLUGS members around the country. We also give PLUGS its first official mascot, and draw analogies between PLUGS, TV Shows and Sports. Enjoy and thanks for being part of the story. Learning Objectives: 1. Identify key strategies for building interdisciplinary relationships to support laboratory stewardship programs within health systems. 2. Explain how clinical decision support (CDS) systems can improve lab test ordering, naming one challenge in implementing them, and describing one potential future improvement in CDS that involves AI. 3. Name two accomplishments of PLUGS that have had a national impact. 4. Define why it is important to have specific CPT coding to support laboratory stewardship, using celiac testing as an example. PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  7. 09/26/2025

    Huge Test Panels in the Search for Personal Purity

    In this episode of the PLUGS podcast, Drs. Mike Astion and Geoff Baird discuss the massive testing panels associated with the belief that the environment –through its many metals, biotoxins, microbes, and allergens—is a significant source of unresolved signs and symptoms.  The time stamped highlights are listed below. 00: 00 Defining the quest for purity. 07:00 Are the providers true believers, or is this quackery? 14:00 Are the patients psychiatric or is this simply dissatisfaction with conventional care? 20:00 War on Aging: Are we in bondage to decay and death? 25:40 Heavy Metals: Germanium, Palladium, Thorium and beyond 33:00 PFAS: and the new war on Teflon 44:00 Consequences of the quest ---for patients, labs, and insurers--and how to mitigate them. 1:01:00 How can we help conventional providers cope with these orders and results? 1:06:00 Stories from the Quest: A person discovers double-blind testing, and a person turns blue. Learning Objectives: Define the quest for purity and the types of testing associated with it.Describe the role of belief, experience and evidence in the large test panelsassociated with the quest for purity?Describe two negative consequences of the quest for purity and how a risk-based approach can mitigate these consequences?Explain one way clinical labs can help conventional providers with patients whoare on the quest for purity?PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

  8. 07/17/2025

    Incompetence Beepers, Lampshade Hats, Kindergarten Probability Classes, Happy False Positives, and Labs Driving Healthcare Off the Fiscal Cliff

    In this episode of the PLUGS podcast, Drs. Mike Astion and Geoff Baird discuss some foundational principles in lab stewardship and management. Give a listen. 05:30 Dunning-Kruger effect: dealing with incompetence through feedback from annoying logical contrarians. 09:15: The impostor syndrome: Helping lab workers who are experts but afraid to speak up. 14:30: Lampshades: Would Mike wear one? A discussion of the normalization of deviance and how it impacts the workplace. 18:15 Slowly drifting into deviance. 20: 00. Is Mike’s use of swear words deviant? Could feedback help? 21:30. Regular football rules vs “Kill the guy with the ball”: How to explain why we need workplace rules to block the normalization of deviance. 23:50. Geoff thinks Baye’s theorem should be taught in kindergarten, when kids are learning how to count. 25:00 In screening, finding true positives amongst the false positives is a complex, anxiety-provoking, and expensive proposition. 28:00 Geoff has a false positive adventure: Even a public health success produces a large number of anxiety-provoking false positives. 29:30. “I don’t have cancer!” Why aren’t patients angrier about false positives? 31:00 “I don’t have cancer!” Mike’s false cancer diagnosis as an example of cancer screening challenges 32:00 Lab as a significant driver of unnecessary healthcare costs: excessive inpatient testing and the need for stewardship. 40:00 Hey, that’s a lot of calcium testing and a whole heap of unnecessary calcium infusions! 42:00 Alternative revenue sources for clinical labs: Is there revenue beyond clinical testing? 47:30 Are government dollars clean? And industry dollars dirty? PLUGS Website:  https://www.schplugs.org/ MTS Website https://medtraining.org/

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About

The PLUGS Podcast aims to empower healthcare providers, clinical laboratories, insurance plans, and patients by enhancing lab stewardship.  Laboratory stewardship has five key improvement goals: 1) enhanced access to testing, 2) appropriate and accurate test ordering, 3) timely retrieval of test results, 4) correct result interpretation, and 5) financial alignment between patients, labs and payers. Financial alignment means that patients are protected from financial toxicity, labs are paid fairly, and insurance companies do not pay for wasteful test practices.  Through insightful discussions, expert guidance, and valuable resources, the PLUGS Podcast is dedicated to supporting all stakeholders in navigating the complexities of clinical lab stewardship, ultimately promoting both better patient outcomes and financial security.

Information

  • Creator
    PLUGS
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 PLUGS Podcast
  • Show Website
    PLUGS Podcast