CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
Gene N. Herbek, MD
May 2014—The CAP annual meeting is the place to find top-drawer educational opportunities, network with peers, and become a more effective advocate for your practice and your specialty. I’m intent on persuading you to come.
The learning begins when we select from the menu of multidisciplinary learning options already posted on the CAP website. This year, CAP ’14 will feature 95 CME courses, including 30 with self-assessment modules, or SAMs, along with an array of roundtable discussions and video microscopy tutorials. The faculty is a mix of marquee experts and up-and-coming stars, all of whom enjoy adult education and know how to get us thinking.
Dr. Herbek
Our Curriculum Committee, chaired by Terence J. Colgan, MD, a professor of both laboratory medicine and pathobiology and obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Toronto, works with the estimable CAP Learning staff to construct an annual meeting education program that meets the learning needs of our members. There is an interesting tension, Dr. Colgan says, between bringing in what we need in 2014 and covering what will be important one or two years down the road. The program planning has to strike a balance between courses tied to this year’s learning theme—molecular medicine—and those designed to provide knowledge that can be applied back home on Monday morning. So they offer a course on a new CAP/American Society of Hematology algorithm for the initial workup of acute leukemia. They add a new plenary session on the evolution of GI histopathology taught by renowned gastrointestinal pathologist Robert H. Riddell, MD. They provide more innovative practice-management content, including a panel session on how pathologists can make their mark within coordinated care systems. It’s all there.
On Sunday morning, we might engage in early-morning soul-searching prompted by the opening plenary, where three national thought leaders will serve up a provocative look at the cost-benefit dilemmas to be expected as molecular technologies continue to tumble out of the chute. What can we afford, and not afford, to do? How will those decisions be made? We can talk about that when we gather to honor the 2014 Pathologist of the Year at the Spotlight Reception and enjoy that evening’s speaker, best-selling author Michio Kaku, PhD, a professor of theoretical physics whose media appearances are famously engaging. Dr. Kaku writes a blog for the Big Think website, too. His current posts include “String theory is the only game in town” and “Math is the mind of God.” He’s sure to strike a chord (or is it a string?) with our members and guests—scientists and nonscientists alike.
There is much to do at CAP ’14, but whatever else we might be up to, we’ll be networking morning, noon, and night. Inevitably, conversations about educational content will meander toward home. In the process, we’ll get a good sense of how our practices compare with those of pathologist colleagues across the country. We’ll have productive conversations and build professional ties.
In the exhibit hall, we’ll have direct access to technologies that we can examine at our leisure guided by people who know them inside and out. This is the place to find out about billing software suited to your practice, learn about the capabilities of various reference laboratories, and examine the latest imaging tools.
The exhibit hall is also home to the CAP booth, where we can find out more about the many kinds of support the CAP provides. There, we can talk with experienced practice managers, people who can advise on leveraging our unique strengths within various practice models. We can review materials from the CAP Value-Based Business Center that can help us become more efficient and agile in managing challenges and planning for the future, including tools to identify competitive opportunities within our communities and evaluate our readiness to take advantage of them.
One thing that every one of us should do is think about how we can sharpen our advocacy skills. Members of the CAP advocacy staff will be in the CAP booth throughout the meeting to advise on that and to talk about how our legislative policy is framed. This is a terrific opportunity to sign up to host a lab tour, find expertise on advocacy at the state level, and get to know our team.
Many residents will prepare for the Sunday morning Fellowship Fair (9:30–11:30 am) by participating in mock fellowship or job interviews before the Residents Forum convenes on Saturday. (Members of the CAP House of Delegates and Board of Governors will act as interviewers.) In addition to their regular business, the Residents Forum will hold a town hall meeting, where representatives of the American Board of Pathology, Association of Pathology Chairs/Programs Directors Section, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review Committee for Pathology will take questions and welcome comments.
Also on Saturday, all CAP fellows are welcome to attend the House of Delegates meeting, where we will be updated on how the CAP is addressing issues that our delegates have identified as important. HOD sessions are structured to facilitate peer-to-peer dialogue around challenges encountered in pathology practices so that early insights can be shared and creative solutions discussed. It’s a good way to start the meeting and a good use of your time.
Everyone should have received the “sneak preview” CAP ‘14 mini-catalog by now; if the full CAP ’14 catalog has not yet arrived, it will be in your mailbox soon. (Online registration is open now; the information is posted at www.cap.org/cap14.)You’ll see that the registration rates have been dramatically reduced and restructured: Until July 18, CAP members can purchase an early-bird global pass for $950 or a one-day pass for $299.
I hope every CAP fellow will make a decision today to join us at CAP ‘14. If partners have not yet made that commitment, encourage them to come as well. The new rate structure will allow more of us to attend at least part of the meeting, and everyone should have the chance.
Our annual meeting is an intentionally immersive experience, a chance to reconnect with your people, to teach and learn, to remember why you chose pathology as a profession and all the ways this specialty speaks to you like nothing else.
This September, come to Chicago to learn, connect, and lead.
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Dr. Herbek welcomes communication from CAP members. Write to him at president@cap.org.