Michael Laposata

Michael Laposata is an American pathologist, biochemist and specialist in blood coagulation. He was chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston and earlier directed clinical laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital and Vanderbilt University.[[[1]]][2] He is known for developing diagnostic management teams, for his work on bleeding disorders misdiagnosed as child abuse, and as a plaintiff in the 2024 lawsuit that overturned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's rule on laboratory developed tests.[1][[[3]]3][4] In 2026 he founded ExpertDx, Inc.

Laposata received a Bachelor of Science in biology from Bucknell University in 1974. He earned both an MD and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receiving the MD in 1981. He then completed postdoctoral research and a residency in clinical pathology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.[1][6]

Career

Laposata joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine as an assistant professor in 1985.[6] In 1989 he became Director of Clinical Laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was also on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.[1][6]

He moved to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2008 and served as director of clinical laboratories at Vanderbilt University Hospital.[1] He later joined the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston as professor and chair of the Department of Pathology. He also directed UTMB's MD-PhD program.[2][5]

At all three institutions he built diagnostic management teams. These teams give ordering physicians an expert's interpretation of complex laboratory results, with recommended next steps.[1] He organized three national conferences on forming diagnostic management teams.[source needed]

Laposata retired from academic medicine in 2026.

Research and contributions

Laposata is the author of Laposata's Laboratory Medicine: Diagnosis of Disease in the Clinical Laboratory (McGraw Hill), now in its fourth edition.[2] He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers.[2]

For more than two decades he studied bleeding and clotting disorders that can be mistaken for signs of child abuse. These include von Willebrand disease, vitamin K deficiency, leukemia, immune thrombocytopenic purpura and Henoch-Schönlein purpura.[3] As an expert witness in cases where caregivers were accused of abuse, his testimony has been reported to have contributed to exonerations and to children being returned to their families.[3][source needed for specific outcomes]

He designed the curriculum for a doctorate in clinical laboratory science.[source needed]

Policy and advocacy

Laposata served on the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) Committee on Diagnostic Error in Health Care. The committee produced the 2015 report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care.[5]

In August 2024 he joined the Association for Molecular Pathology as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the FDA's final rule on regulating laboratory developed tests.[2][4] In 2025 a federal district court in Texas vacated the rule.[4] That November, the Association for Molecular Pathology gave him its Champion for Innovation Award for his role in the case.[2]

ExpertDx

In 2026, after retiring from academic medicine, Laposata founded ExpertDx, Inc. The company provides expert interpretations of complex laboratory and diagnostic cases to ordering physicians nationwide, extending the diagnostic management team model beyond individual hospitals.[source needed]

Recognition

• 14 teaching awards from Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine[2]
• Named the most influential pathologist in the United States by The Pathologist in 2015[2][6]
• Inducted into the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) Hall of Fame[1]
• Champion for Innovation Award, Association for Molecular Pathology, 2025[2]
• According to the Eastern Tribunal, he is "ranked among the top 0.05% of his peers in the country".

Bibliography

• Laboratory Medicine: The Diagnosis of Disease in the Clinical Laboratory. (McGraw Hill, 2010). ISBN 978-1-260-11679-3.

References

1. [[ADLM Hall of Fame: Michael Laposata]]

2. Association for Molecular Pathology honors Michael Laposata with Champion for Innovation Award (2025)

3. Carry over from the current article: PBS Frontline, "If It's Not Abuse"; NBC News (December 13, 2019); ProPublica (February 21, 2012); NPR (June 28, 2011)

4. FDA Law Blog: Federal district court vacates FDA's laboratory developed tests final rule (April 2025)

5. Committee on Diagnostic Error in Health Care, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care (2015)

External links

• Official website