As we roll into 2022, hot on the heels of a second pandemic year, I feel a bit bold in expressing some optimism for this new year. In 2021, we witnessed some of the more relentlessly challenging experiences most have faced in their entire careers. In looking back at my letter from January of 2021, I discussed the concept of aggressive compassion fatigue, and that was a year ago. While the highs and lows (mostly lows) rolled through our communities and health care practice areas, one thing has remained constant—you.

If you are reading this now, you have remained. You are still in the ring, swinging and not without pluck and accuracy. You are, perhaps, feeling outnumbered, but you have proven resilient yet; further testing the limits of your own compassion. Although something of a bitter pill, these experiences will steel you to future challenges that are sure to come.

But you are also changing and evolving, becoming accustomed to virtual and remote processes. The latest automation and technology (dependency on which is ever increasing in light of staffing shortages) now delivers information on the fly and in real time, often to the device in your hand. Remote monitoring of laboratory conditions, test status, and quality control has become almost standard, and laboratorians are working outside of their own four walls more than ever. We know you are feeling stressed and as always, we want to help.

We are looking forward to the launch this year of a new eNewsletter—ShortCuts—that will provide instant access to tools, forms, documents, and templates for process improvement in the laboratory. See page 14 of this issue for an example and visit medlabmag.com/subscribe to make sure your email is up to date. Each eNewsletter will contain a few valuable tools that you can quickly adopt to your own laboratory operations. As always, we encourage you to reach out and share tools of your own with your colleagues.

As we hit the ground running in 2022, we are grateful for your persistence. We are proud and humbled that you continue to care and dedicate yourselves to helping others. We are with you every step of the way.

With best regards and health and safety in the new year,

David McCormick

Managing Editor