As our esteemed colleagues, you’re probably aware of the disbanding of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) by an executive order on March 31, 2025. For background, CLIAC was established in 1992 to allow for public input on the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) regulations and to provide scientific and technical guidance related to clinical laboratory quality and laboratory medicine.

The sudden abolition of CLIAC came as a surprise to many, and most of its board and membership do not seem to have been directly notified of its termination. Because CLIAC played such a pivotal role in shaping policies and regulations through its recommendations for evidence-based approaches to the clinical laboratory industry, the Project Santa Fe Foundation and Clinical Lab 2.0 have joined a host of other prominent laboratory groups in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. urging the restoration of CLIAC.

CLIAC is the most effective and efficient way to achieve “consistent, accurate, and reliable test results” as set forth in the Public Health Services Act. It is the organization that fills the gap between federal agencies establishing proper procedures and those working on the front line in the laboratory by providing the platform for which necessary improvements to laboratory practices and services could be discussed.

Without CLIAC, we fear that CLIA regulations may become outdated and disconnected from actual laboratory practices, obviously leading to poorer patient outcomes and further erosion of healthcare in the United States. We hope our efforts and those of our laboratory collaborators will be successful in reinstating this important body for the sake of our industry and, more importantly, the patients we all serve.

To become more involved in our advocacy efforts, please email us at info@cl2lab.org, and don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to stay apprised of endeavors to shape the future state of the laboratory industry for the better.