New Speaker of the CAP House of Delegates

Nancy Johnson
0:02

CAP leaders urge members to get involved with advocacy, a gut bacteria that reduces cholesterol, and meet the new speaker of the CAP house. These stories and more coming up next. Welcome to CAP News. I'm Nancy Johnson with the College of American Pathologists. It's Friday, October 9th. Here's what's making news in pathology and laboratory medicine.

Nancy Johnson
0:33

The CAP advocacy team has a full slate of priorities in the year ahead. Pushing back on proposed changes to Medicare billing codes for surgical pathology, reform of Medicare's local coverage determination process, addressing the workforce shortage in pathology laboratories, and modernizing CLIA to account for changes in the way labs operate. At the CAP 26 Advocacy Town Hall this week, CAP leaders urged members to continue engaging with elected officials to ensure that pathology's voice is heard. Dr. Ronald McLawhon especially urged members to participate in AMA surveys to capture the work involved in providing surgical pathology services.

Nancy Johnson
1:22

A common gut bacteria lowers cholesterol and arterial plaque, reducing the risk of heart disease. That's the finding of a new study published in Nature last week. Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen, China, found lower levels of the bacteria in people with heart disease. Injecting the bacteria into mice with heart disease reduced plaque in their main arteries by about a third. The researchers also lowered levels of total cholesterol and LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. Researchers later found that a molecule in the bacteria inhibits the liver from producing cholesterol. The study could eventually lead to cholesterol drugs that work more effectively than statins to lower arterial plaque. Heart disease caused by arterial plaque is one of the leading causes of death globally. The program also needs additional funding to modernize its data systems, including the ability to share data with researchers, providers, and public health agencies. The CAP endorsed the increased funding in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with dozens of other health care organizations.

Nancy Johnson
3:05

And finally, Dr. Marilyn Bui is the new Speaker of the CAP's House of Delegates. A practicing pathologist at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, Dr. Bui has served as Vice Speaker and as chair of both the Digital Computational Pathology Committee and the Publications Committee. She's also a past president of the Digital Pathology Association and the Florida Society of Pathologists. But leading the House of Delegates is special, she said, because as a young member, that's where she met the mentors who encouraged her to play an active role in pathology.

Dr. Marilyn Bui
3:43

HOD is I want to say the pathway for leadership. And that this just land me on all these leadership opportunities.

Nancy Johnson
3:53

Dr. Bui has clear goals for the HOD.

Dr. Marilyn Bui
3:57

First is to fill the house so we will want to make every seat count. And then second is to engage and empower all the members, and the third is to build a real relationship and network among ourselves so we can support each other and better um represent the voice of the membership.

Nancy Johnson
4:25

The advocacy issues will be front and center during her term, Dr. Bui told us.

Dr. Marilyn Bui
4:31

It's almost like a perfect storm right now. We have challenges from CMS re-evaluating the surgical pathology codes, we have scope of practice challenges, we have pathology shortage challenges. There are just so many advocacy issues happen at the same time. So this is the time we really need to engage all our CAP members, and the HOD is considered the vanguard of the CAP. So we are going to play a very important role in connect and educate our members so we can all work together to advocate for ourselves and to really benefit quality patient care.

Nancy Johnson
5:21

That's all for today. See the show notes for more information on today's stories. And if you've got a story to share, write to us at stories at CAP.org. We'll be back Monday, October 12th with another edition of CAP News. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great weekend.