CAPcast from the College of American Pathologists

The CAP’s Graduate Medical Education Committee recently published recommendations for Entrustable Professional Activities—or EPAs—for pathology in the journal Academic Pathology (http://capatholo.gy/2xvOXqJ). In this CAPcast from the College of American Pathologists, committee vice-chair Dr. Cindy McCloskey from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine discusses how and why these recommendat...

The 2017 CAP Checklist Edition has just been released, and it contains several updates to the Individualized Quality Control Plans—also known as IQCP—required for CAP Accredited Labs. In this CAPcast, CAP Checklist Committee Chair Dr. William West discusses the key changes that CAP accredited laboratories need to know about to implement these updates. For more information, please visit the IQCP Re...

The CAP recently released 52 cancer protocols for reporting pathologic features in the treatment of cancer patients, also known as the CAP Cancer Protocols. These revised protocols now incorporate changes to tumor stage classification from the American Joint Committee on Cancer 8th Edition Cancer Staging Manual. In this CAPcast, Dr. Thomas Baker, chair of the CAP Cancer Committee, discusses these...

The healthcare payment landscape is changing fast and the financial impacts for physicians could be enormous. In this CAPcast, Dr. Diana Cardona will discuss the primary issues related to Medicare’s quality program and physician fee schedule that will impact pathologists. Dr. Cardona is the Medical Director of the Surgical Pathology and Immunopathology Laboratories at Duke University Medical Cente...

CAP17 (www.thepathologistsmeeting.org) puts storytelling front and center at the Inspiration Stage. On Tuesday, October 10th at 5:30, three compelling storytellers will step onto the Inspiration Stage to share their personal journey toward being the change they want to see in the society, in medicine, and in innovation. In this CAPcast, one of the storytellers, Dr. Susan Rollins, discusses the eve...

When it comes to liver pathology, many practicing pathologists find non-neoplastic liver biopsy interpretation challenging, as well as how to optimize the use of ancillary testing modalities, like special stains to analyze liver biopsies. In this CAPcast, Dr. Robert M. Najarian discusses this and other challenges related to liver pathology as well as share suggestions to improve communication betw...

Twitter use by physicians, especially pathologists, continues to grow. Twitter provides an easy-to-use communications platform for rapid education, news, and networking that helps busy pathologists stay engaged and informed without taking up much time. Many pathologists see the benefits of joining Twitter but are unsure about how to get started. In this CAPcast, Drs. Sara Jiang and Jerad Gardner d...

ISO 15189 is an international quality standard for medical laboratories. One of the best practices addressed in this standard is risk management. In this CAPcast from the College of American Pathologists, Dr. Frank Schneider, chair of CAP’s 15189 Committee, discusses ISO 15189 and risk management. Dr. Schneider, a pathologist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, is also the co-author...

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50. In Milwaukee County, opioid-related deaths are now one-third of the autopsy workload, outnumbering motor vehicle-related and homicide deaths combined, explains Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Brian Peterson. In this CAPcast, Dr. Peterson discusses the factors fueling the rise of the opioid epidemic, how it’s overwhelming the na...

In vivo microscopy (IVM) is a key emerging field in the practice of pathology, representing a new role and opportunity for pathologists. Specifically, pathologists will be called on to partner with other physicians in clinical decision making and delivering patient care, according to Dr. Nicholas P Reder, a current clinical research fellow and co-chief resident at the University of Washington Medi...

Dr. Benjamin Witt discusses the recent reclassification of what had been termed encapsulated (or non-invasive) follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma as a result of a landmark April 2016 article in JAMA Oncology: http://capatholo.gy/2rNnZWn.

In this CAPcast interview, Dr. Miriam Post, a member of CAP’s Graduate Medical Education Committee, discusses findings from a recent survey published earlier this year in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine (http://capatholo.gy/2qVz6zd). She speaks about the survey's findings on attributes employers seek in applicants for entry level pathologist positions as well as why networking is s...

Feedback in the laboratory provides pathologists with an opportunity to ensure improvement when necessary, to reinforce the positive, and to ensure that standards are met in a low stakes environment, translating to improved clinical outcomes, explains CAP member Dr. Sarah Bean in this CAPcast interview. In this interview, Dr. Bean discusses the importance of feedback and how to give and receive ef...

ISO 15189, an international quality standard for medical laboratories, has the potential to improve the quality of anatomic pathology services, explains Dr. Frank Schneider, a pathologist with Kaiser Permanente in Northern California who chairs the CAP’s ISO 15189 Committee. Dr. Schneider is the co-author of a chapter on this topic in the new book, Quality Management in Anatomic Pathology, out now...

The FDA has issued Emergency Use Authorization for several diagnostic tests for Zika to assist in the public health response. In this CAPcast, Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, Stanford University Medical Center’s Director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory, discusses the types of testing available as well as the new Vector Bourne Disease Survey from the CAP, which is designed to provide an extra measure of q...

A new book, The Healing Art of Pathology, brings together essays and artwork about pathology from the perspectives of doctors, patients, and family members. In this CAPcast, the book’s editors, Dr Marilyn Bui and Dr. Katherine Galagan, discuss how the book came about and its message about celebrating the courage of patients, the compassion of physicians, and the strength of the human spirit.

Ever since Dustin Bennett was a toddler, he had trouble keeping his balance, and as he grew older, he experienced rigid, jerking spasms that would appear and disappear. He also developed learning disabilities. Linda Bennett, who is Dustin’s adoptive mother, took him to several doctors to try to find the cause of his movement problems. But after years of tests, medications, and hospital stays, ther...

Pathologist Dr. Carol Harris has been leading efforts to diagnose and care for HIV patients in Ethiopia since 2002 as director of Einstein College of Medicine's Institute of Global HIV Medicine. In 2012, she turned her attention to cancer, given the growing number of Ethiopians who are living with and dying from cancer. "As the major infectious diseases...come under control...one of the burgeoning...

The quality of both a patient's biospecimen and the biorepository where it is stored is vital--or the patient can suffer harm, explains Dr. James Robb, who as a consulting pathologist, helped develop the National Cancer Institute’s Community Cancer Center Program (NCCCP)and the Cancer Human Biobank (caHUB). In this CAPcast, Dr. Robb outlines what is being done to ensure quality biospecimens and bi...

When Kimberly Jewett was first diagnosed with breast cancer at 31, she not only confronted the complexities of treatment decisions, but also managing the transfer of her pathology reports among various doctors and hospitals. In this CAPcast, two-time breast cancer survivor Kimberly Jewett talks about how pathologists can be important advocates for breast cancer patients.