Vol 59 No 1 2019
Page 2
Jane Dahlstrom, IAP Education Committee Chair
IAP Education Committee Report
Over the past year, the committee has been active in helping to facilitate educational sessions at major scientific meetings (United States and Canadian Association of Pathologists [USCAP], European Society of Pathology [ESP] and at the IAP 2018 XXXII Congress), as well as regional meetings, through our educational support and Ambassador programs. US$66,000 of funding has been allocated by the IAP Education Committee to facilitate those meetings, occurring in under-served areas of the world. Reports from these meetings attest to the calibre of pathologists within the IAP, who are willing to give back to their profession.
The topics of the sessions at the major scientific meetings included: Global Harmonization in Pathology Training (USCAP 2018 Annual Meeting, 17-23 March, 2018, Vancouver, Canada), From inspiration to publication: a step-wise guide to having your work published in a pathology journal (30th European Congress of Pathology (ECP), 8-12 September, Bilbao, Spain) and Innovations in pathology postgraduate training programs, digital pathology in training and certification, and a training workshop to instruct residents on writing abstracts, manuscripts and research proposals (IAP 2018 XXXII Congress, 11-14 October, Amman, Jordan).
One hundred and twenty-four (124) bursaries were provided for the IAP Congress in Jordan. This is an excellent outcome, and I wish to acknowledge all the Divisions that enabled us to achieve this. Without your contributions, many young pathologists would never have the opportunity to attend an IAP Congress.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Professor Samir Amr, and his abstract review committee, that enabled a merit-based approach to the distribution of the bursaries. We had many more applications than funds, and so we hope, for 2020, we will be able to provide more bursaries through your generous support of this program. All bursary recipients have been asked to complete a survey to help ensure we meet the needs of this important part of our membership. A summary will be provided in the next newsletter.
Our committee met twice this year in Vancouver and Jordan. Our main agenda items included improving our processes for applications to our funding schemes, our needs for the IAP central website redesign, the need for a world map to chart educational activities, and ways to assist junior pathologists in addition to sponsorship to scientist meetings. One action is to create a webinar to assist trainees and junior pathologists to know how to navigate publishing their first manuscript.
Three members of the education committee concluded their term in Jordan. These were Francisco Couto (Asia Pacific), Ghazi Zaatari (Arab Countries) and Sergio Sanchez Sosa (Latin America). I thank them all for their commitment to the IAP Education Committee. These regions have been asked to nominate a new member to join the committee in March 2019.
The topic for the USCAP 2019 Annual Meeting in Maryland, USA on 16-22 March "Ways to assist countries underserved in pathology with limited resources". The aim of this session was to showcase how innovative pathologists have been in areas affected by natural disasters or providing educational programs into areas that lack of resources.
Speakers included Drs Andrew Field (Australia), Francisco Couto ( India), Dan Berney (UK) and Bharti Bhusnurmath (West Indies). We are currently working with the ESP scientific committee to provide a joint session in Nice 2019.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the enormous support I have received from Mr Charles Ramey, IAP assistant secretary, over the past two years. His corporate knowledge needs to be bottled! The Chair of the Education Committee would not be able to manage their role without such assistance.
by Dr. Jane Dahlstrom
November 2018