Amidst a sea of challenges in health care, this year’s Power List celebrates those individuals who are finding solutions and inspiring others to do the same. The 50 individuals in this year’s list – judged blind by their peers – are working tirelessly to counteract the effects of a dwindling workforce, lack of visibility, under-resourcing, and the increasing complexity of diagnostics.
This Leading Voices edition empowers the problem-solvers of laboratory medicine to (metaphorically) shout about their work in their own words. Collectively, their work is responsible for creating, as Barnali Das says, “a paradigm shift from Unsung Warriors in Lab Coats to Leaders in the Health Care Ecosystem.”
Varsha Manucha and Amit Gokhale, for example, explain how they are leading drives towards patient-facing diagnostics and consultations. Recognizing a common perception of the laboratory as the “black box” of secondary care, Gokhale says, “Through my hemotherapy service, I’ve shown how pathologists can step out of that box and into direct patient care.”
Health care leaders also deserve recognition from their peers, of course. Striving for a front-row seat in modern medicine, Malak Althgafi’s entry describes her work for the Lancet Commission on Personalized Medicine, which contributes to “frameworks that place pathology at the center of global healthcare.”
Visibility via innovation is also a strong theme this year. Many entrants described how their innate problem-solving instincts led them to advance technology in the lab. Althgafi summarizes this drive, saying, “I believe we must create the tools we wish existed – especially when existing systems are too slow to adapt.”
Other finalists note that leveraging new technologies to advance the profession extends beyond high-income countries. Ahmed Kalebi, Talat Zehra, and Xiaorong Sun all highlight their efforts in lab transformation in low-resource settings. Kalebi’s mission is clear: “To advance laboratory medicine in Africa so that diagnostics are accessible, affordable, and of the highest quality – rivaling global standards.”
We hope these snippets have whetted your appetite. Explore the essays and discover who made the final Power List 2025 – Leading Voices Edition.
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