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Two blood tests you probably haven’t heard of might predict your risk of heart disease better than standard tests do. The first measures a protein called apolipoprotein B, or apoB for short, that contributes to artery-blocking plaque. The other test, for lipoprotein(a), measures a type of bad cholesterol. A growing number of specialists and primary care doctors say these tests can help give you a more precise and earlier indication of possible heart problems than more common tests for things like LDL, the best-known bad cholesterol marker. Up to 20% of patients with normal LDL cholesterol levels will have high levels of apoB, says Dr. Marc Penn, a cardiologist and a medical director at laboratory testing company Quest Diagnostics.

Coming years could see a shift in clinical laboratory operations as developments in robotics and AI further streamline workflows and bring automation to new parts of the lab. In particular, labs and vendors are working to deploy "trackless" robotics and automation systems to supplement or replace traditional track-based total lab automation (TLA) systems, further reducing the human involvement required for lab workflows and in some laboratories eliminating it entirely. Quest is also moving toward a trackless automation strategy, said Aldana, noting that the company began seriously pursuing this approach this year using both equipment from outside vendors as well as systems developed internally. He said that while the effort is still in the early stages, the company aims to quickly roll out trackless automation tools across its labs.