With Charge to Be Bold, Pathologists Look to Future at CAP26

Dr. Jim Zhai
0:03

New discoveries. New expectations. New challenges. Change is coming.

Elizabeth McMahon
0:11

It's a wrap at CAP 26 in Las Vegas, where pathologists celebrated their profession and embraced the innovations shaping their future. We have the highlights. Welcome to CAP News for Wednesday, October 7th. I'm Elizabeth McMahon of the College of American Pathologists. Here's what's making news in pathology and laboratory medicine. With a charge to be bold, CAP President Dr. Jim Jai set the tone for the annual meeting of the 20,000-member college, acknowledging the challenges ahead.

Dr. Jim Zhai
1:04

Change is coming. Change is permanent. Change is uncomfortable.

Elizabeth McMahon
1:11

Amid fireside chats and side conversations, the packed agenda included sessions on digital pathology and demonstrations of innovations shaping the field. Members of the CAP's Residence Forum and House of Delegates elected new leadership and met jointly to discuss navigating career decisions. Outgoing House Speaker Dr. Sang Wu encouraged his colleagues to quote, be super members.

Dr. Sang Wu
1:48

That's to be excited, to be ready to represent our field well, to be proud of our work, and really to show how important pathology is within the house medicine.

Elizabeth McMahon
1:58

Advocacy was top of mind in the hallways and at the speaker's podium. Find special coverage of the annual meeting in this week's CAP newsletters. Pathology's role connecting more patients to targeted cancer therapies took center stage at CAP 26. Over several sessions, members explored barriers for patients receiving therapies tailored to their disease and ways to close the precision care gap. Dr. Mark Tuthill led the Future of Cancer Data Summit where discussions centered on collaboration and data reporting. Separately, members got a first look at the CAP's Biomarker One Source platform, which will provide labs with education and data about biomarker testing. Dr. Annette Kim, chair of the CAP Personalized Healthcare Committee, said the platform will initially contain up to 50 oncology biomarkers. It will also be free.

Dr. Annette Kim
3:22

We would prefer to make sure that as many laboratories across the entire United States and even the world are doing biomarker testing rather than having it just be at a few distant sites.

Elizabeth McMahon
3:34

The CAP expects to launch Biomarker OneSource in 2027. The CAP announced that it is modernizing its Pathologists' Quality Registry, or PQR, in partnership with clinical research service provider IQ VIA. PQR is a quality benchmarking platform that helps pathology practices meet requirements under Medicare's merit-based incentive payment system. The project will broaden PQR to support member advocacy, interoperability, quality improvement, and research. PQR participants will continue using the existing platform until the new version rolls out. And finally, it wasn't all serious science and deep discussions at CAP 26. Roving residents kept social media channels hopping with sights and sounds from the annual meeting. During Dr. Amy Rousselot's Instagram takeover of the CAP account, two University of Colorado residents tackled this hard-hitting pathology question.

Dr. Amy Rousselot
4:42

If you guys could be any stain, what would you be? I'd probably be Musli Carmen because it's pretty. And I have an affinity for INSM1 for neuroendocrine tumors, so I might be INSM1 right now. We'll see you later.

Elizabeth McMahon
4:57

That's a gamble, probably best left in Las Vegas. That's all for today. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Got a story you'd like to hear on the podcast? Write to us at stories at CAP.org. We're back at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of CAP News. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. Have a great day.