Vol 60 No 1 2020
Dietmar Schmidt, IAP President
President's Report
Dear Members:
Since I took office as president of IAP in 2018, I had the opportunity to attend several congresses of our divisions and assemblies in the United States, Pakistan, China and Cuba. Moreover, I participated in a site visit to the Convention Center and surrounding hotels in Cancun, Mexico which had been elected in Amman, Jordan in October 2018 as venue of our Biannual Congress in 2024. All meetings clearly showed that our divisions are highly active and IAP as a worldwide network of divisions and assemblies is making further progress in development of education in pathology.
The members of the international organizing committee, the education committee, the finance committee, and the executive committee met at USCAP in National Harbor/Virginia in March 2019. As usual, this USCAP Congress 2019 was a very successful meeting attended by a large number of participants from many different countries.
Jane Dahlstrom, IAP Education Committee Chair
IAP Education Committee Report
We have had another productive year facilitating educational sessions both at major scientific meetings (United States and Canadian Association of Pathologists [USCAP] and European Society of Pathology [ESP]) as well as regional meetings through our educational support and Ambassador programs . Funding was allocated by the IAP Education Committee to four groups to facilitate their meetings occurring in underserved areas of the world during 2019. Reports from these meetings can be found here. These reports attest to the calibre of pathologists within the IAP who are willing to give back to their profession. Shortly, we will open the website to applications for bursaries to attend the XXXIII Congress of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP) to be held August 29 - September 2, 2020 in Glasgow, UK.
The IAP Symposium for USCAP 2020 is a very exciting one, titled: ‘Digital pathology: Delivering pathology teaching globally’. Our speakers include: Rajendra Singh, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine New York, USA; Blake Gilks, VCH, Canada; Kar Ming Fung, Oklahoma University Medical School, USA; and Arrigo Capitanio, Linköping University Hospital, Sweden.
A History of the IAP News Bulletin
Reflections by Dr. Robin Cooke (Editor from 1995 to 2017)
Introduction
The IAP News Bulletin has had a long and dynamic history. From a typewritten paper sent via post, to its current form, now created and distributed electronically, this remarkable journey across decades has been chronicled below by Dr. Robin Cooke, immediate past editor:
Preliminary experience with Newsletters
The inaugural meeting of the Australasian Division of the IAP was held in the lecture theatre of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney in 1973. The Secretary was Peter Cropley from Sydney and he began to write Newsletters and continued to do that until 1983.
A Successful 31st Congress of the IAP Arab Division in Hurghuda, Egypt
Around 150 pathologists from Arab, European and North American countries traveled to the beautiful city of Hurghuda in Egypt to attend the 31st Congress of the Arab Division of IAP. The four day Congress spanned over four days on October 23-26, 2019 and included a one day cytopathology workshop and three days of lectures and slide session seminars on contemporary topics in pathology given by distinguished international speakers from USA, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland and the region. The covered topics were Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology, Gastrointestinal Pathology, Gynecologic Pathology, Uropathology, Pulmonary and Mediastinum Pathology, & Neuropathology. Forty-two pathologists-in-training presented their work in oral or poster platform. In addition to this rich scientific program, the attendees enjoyed a pleasant social program that took advantage of the Congress' venue on the scenic coast of the Red Sea and its spectacular beaches.
Meet the IAP Secretariat
The IAP secretariat works quietly behind the scenes to ensure that the IAP functions to deliver its aims to promote pathology and education around the world. The formal administration meetings including the IAP Council take place on even-numbered years at the biennial Congresses, with the next future Congress to take place in Glasgow in 2020. Administrative meetings of the IAP Executive and other active committees take place annually at the USCAP AGM.
In the meantime, the Secretariat comprises Ray McMahon as Secretary, in the post since the end of 2014, and the Assistant Secretaries, Charles Ramey, based in Vancouver and in the post since 2006 when he worked with my predecessor, David Hardwick, and Allison Booth, based in Manchester who has been involved for the last two years. All three of us communicate regularly; Ray and Allison meet up in Manchester and keep in touch with Charles in Vancouver via Skype. There is also a huge electronic transfer of information and data as required.
In the background, the IAP website has been revamped through the good offices of Charles and his colleague in Vancouver, Stan Shaw. This has allowed us to migrate a huge amount of the archive of the IAP, dating back many decades, into a Google platform which will be transferable to future Secretariats in a relatively straightforward way. The Google platform also allows real time contact between the Secretariat and the various IAP committees. The most important of these is the Education Committee chaired by Jane Dahlstrom, based in Canberra, which is responsible for tracking and supporting the outreach programs of the IAP and its assemblies and divisions around the world.