Frequently Asked Questions
If you can’t find your question here, simply ask a question - Our expert panel of pathologists involved with the CAP’s Campaign to Transform the Specialty of Pathology is here to help! Simply click on any question below to read the full answer.
December 29, 2009 – New Technologies Driving All Priorities?
Pathologists have been working with new technologies from day 1; we introduced flow cytometry and PCR without a special institute; why would working with today’s new tools require a transformation? Technology is important, but I don’t think it should drive our priorities.
New technologies are not driving transformation, although they are accelerating shifts already occurring in the greater environment. The political, legislative, and regulatory environment is what has been reframing the big picture.
Technology is an auxiliary mechanism to get us where we want to go – a safe harbor for our patients. New technologies are the oars of the boat that will protect patient safety. The most able pathologist of the future will understand all the available technologies and how they work together. Pathology is the only specialty with all the nuts and bolts to build the boat and the only physicians in a position to ensure that everyone who has a hand on one of those oars is pulling in the right direction.
Pathologists have always been peer educators, but the curriculum has exploded. We need to change our approach so that new tools are well understood and their power is fully respected. We know the dangers of the undertow. We know what everyone on the clinical team needs to understand about quality control, especially pre- and postanalytic quality control. To bring that home, we must reach out and bring them on board. We cannot wait for them to come to us; we need to build the systems that bring them in. That’s what the Center is all about.
December 2009 - Learning Beyond New Technologies
Will programs of the Center and the CAP Institute be restricted to the pathologist’s application of new technologies?
Definitely not! Best practices documents and coursework generated by both the Center and the Institute will focus on proper application of all technologies that affect direct patient care. Transformational pathology is about creating effective systems for quality control of the entire process and generating enthusiasm around their proper use. It is about creating a self-sustaining mentality that will motivate any health care professional who interacts in any way with a laboratory test to recognize that every sample represents a real person.
Pathologists must evolve and adopt new roles quickly, keeping pace with new tools and techniques. We’ve been on this path from the start; it is what we were always meant to do. The Institute will take us from the entrance ramp to the highway. The rubber has hit the road on transformational pathology and those still waiting to merge with the traffic are running out of time to ramp up.
December - Why the big push around The Institute?
The College has always done an outstanding job of educating members. New online opportunities and intensive programs at the annual meeting have continued to emerge apace. Why the big push around this Institute? If it’s not a place and it’s not an event, how is it different from what have always done?
The difference between traditional education and the Institute is the difference between knowledge and belief. The learning will be less about lecturing than mentoring. The process is less intellectual and more behavioral. The learning tools will be more comprehensive and more interactive. Programs through the Institute will build on traditional CME with cognitive assessment, practical assessment, and hands-on learning.
December - What are we supposed to Change?
Maybe it’s the vocabulary that I’m running up against. All this talk about transformation sounds like so much marketing. I’m still not clear about what is supposed to change about our way of practicing medicine. Why are we pursuing new work that we won’t have time to do? Isn’t doing our job right the most important part?
Correct on all counts, but it’s not going to matter. If we are to continue to keep patients safe with so much environmental volatility, we need to redirect the flow of energy across the entire clinical team. It’s almost like whitewater rafting. There’s a lot of creative chaos in the environment generating serious turbulence. Dozens of new diagnostic and therapeutic options will be emerging in the next decade and the decade after that. In the aggregate, that’s a good thing, but clinicians cannot know what they do not know about each new diagnostic and therapeutic tool. The raft worked well when the water was quiet, but the turbulence calls for something a lot more durable. We need to build a better boat and to maintain it over time. The Center is our boathouse.
November - How can seasoned pathologists contribute to transformation?
I enjoy reading about new diagnostics and emerging technologies but our staff is already stressed to the max. I’m inclined to send our younger colleagues to the CAP Institute courses while I cover for them here; at 10 years to retirement, I think that’s how I can best contribute to our practice.
New technologies are not only for new pathologists! CAP Institute coursework will enhance your ability to relate to your clinical colleagues and bring your practice-based knowledge to the conversation. For many pathologists, leadership on the clinical team will be a new experience. For most, it will be a very good experience. Seasoned pathologists who understand the new tools are needed to guide younger colleagues in their use and put new knowledge in context for other specialists on the clinical team. If you are an experienced pathologist, that job has your name on it.
November - Pathologists’ core role in patient care is changing
I still don’t understand how it is that our core role in patient care is changing. Isn’t safety the responsibility of the manufacturer? Isn’t enforcement of quality assurance requirements the responsibility of government?
Safety and quality assurance are everybody’s responsibility. Given the complexity of new tools, the considerations that feed into optimal quality of patient care are increasingly multifaceted. To develop authoritative best practices for all hospitals and analytics, we need everyone at the table. There are chairs for industry and government at the table; there is a place for input from patient advocacy groups and nonphysician professionals on the patient care team. Quality is an inclusive endeavor. The authority and influence of best practices generated through the Center will be in direct proportion to the extent of cross-specialty and cross-discipline collaboration.
November - Learning new technologies the purpose of CME?
“Transformation” sounds so dramatic. We do need to learn to use new technologies, but isn’t that the purpose of continuing medical education?
CME is a vital part of what we’re setting out to do, but transformation is not an overstatement. The difference between CME and transformation is the difference between staying current and reinvention. This is more than a matter of degree; it’s a substantial change in how we see ourselves and how others see us. CME increases the knowledge base; transformation changes behavior. CME is about maintaining competence; transformational pathology is lifelong learning on steroids.
November - If pathologists don’t take charge, others will
I get the impression that if pathologists don’t take charge of new technologies, others will. I’m not sure that would be a bad thing. We’re working double-duty already; why is this our job?
Those who say that “this is not our job” are right. We do not have a job; we have a mission.
New technologies are emerging rapidly from a host of sources; there is a void to be filled in monitoring quality and protecting patient safety. All of medicine is in transformation. As we move from a curative to a preventive model, everyone is looking to find a footing. Transformational pathology requires a monumental shift in our collective thinking. To ensure that scientific progress continues to occur with all deliberate speed but also without risk to patient safety, physicians must regroup and specialists must work more closely with one another. Pathologists, who work with all specialists and see all the evidence, are uniquely positioned to understand why and drive that message home to our clinical partners.
October – The Center and CAP Institute as Prudent Investments
The College is investing significant resources in the CAP Institute and the CAP Center for Quality. I wonder if this is a prudent investment.
The Institute and the Center are strategies to protect quality and patient safety in an era of great volatility and promise. Transformation is more than education; it’s evolution. Just as the CAP Institute is about more than CME, transformational pathology is about more than new tools. The CAP Institute and the CAP Center will house and nourish essential developmental changes in our specialty.
Pathologists are a population at risk; if we do not evolve we will not survive. The CAP Institute and CAP Center are frivolous investments only if you think that investing in our survival is less than prudent.
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