28 November 2018

This year's International Pathology Day took place on the 14th of November and saw people all over the world getting involved in pathology-related activities.

To mark International Pathology Day (IPD), the College partnered with The Pathologist to host this one day event. The day featured a range of talks and a roundtable exploring the important role and contribution of pathologists, scientists, and laboratory medicine professionals in the treatment pathway and care of patients, and how the results from research undertaken in the laboratory are directly used to develop new ways to treat patients and combat disease.

Jo Martin IPD 2018.jpeg

Professor Jo Martin, the College's President, introduced the day stressing the importance of IPD. Following National Pathology Week, Professor Martin stated that IPD is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the contribution and important role played by pathology and laboratory medicine services in addressing global health challenges and improving the health outcomes of communities around the world.

The first half of the day featured a range of talks, kicking off with an introduction of the day’s theme: ‘genomics is the integration of the effects of multiple genes and variants, potentially the whole genome, but it starts with understanding single genes and their variants.’ The following talks then delved into deeper topics such as understanding the emergence of resistance in tuberculosis, creating new clinical pathways for whole genome sequencing, the use of AI in the implementation of BRCA testing in the care and treatment of ovarian cancer patients and exploring the progress that is being made to incorporate genomic data into Public Health England’s National Disease Registry.

The afternoon featured a roundtable discussion: ‘Out of the Box Pathology... How the Profession is Helping to Drive Innovation in Disease Therapy and Diagnosis. Chaired by Professor Martin, the discussion was delivered by pathologists who have taken the less trodden career route to work on some ground breaking discoveries and life-changing projects. Some of the key areas the panel covered were why pathologists are particularly suited to drive innovation, how gene-editing technology will disrupt the field of pathology diagnosis and what is the value added and the value gained for the pathologists when liaising with pharmaceuticals on drug development. The roundtable was delivered to a studio audience as well as streamed live online allowing global participation. We are pleased to announce you can now watch the roundtable on demand here.  

Around the World – What did you do?

Many member and non-member events took place across the world to support IPD. We are very thankful to all those who organised and attended these events to help raise awareness of the importance of the pathology specialty and shared their experiences and inspiring stories with us.

Egypt

Shefaa Al-Orman Hospital in collaboration with the Egyptian Committee for Pathology Training, successfully ran their first International Pathology Day (IPD) event in Luxor, Egypt. The one-day event welcomed 8 undergraduate medical students and interns from Egyptian medical schools. The day was spent in the different sections of the histopathology laboratory. With a combination of live demonstration sessions and presentations by pathologists and biomedical scientists, the students saw the journey of the patient sample from accessioning into the laboratory to verifying a final diagnostic report. This gave them an opportunity to appreciate the pivotal role played by pathology in cancer patient care, and develop an understanding of the working world of pathologists and biomedical scientists. The day ended with an open discussion with the students about the career path and challenges in the fields of histopathology and molecular pathology.

United Arab Emirates

To mark IPD, Dr Sreekala Sreehari, Country Advisor to UAE, and Mr Peter Makowski, General Manager of the NMC Royal Hospital in Abu Dhabi, arranged activities in the Histopathology Department. This included a talk: ‘Effective cancer treatment begins with efficient histopathologic diagnosis.’

Social Media

The hashtag #PathologyDay was used across all social media platforms to champion and celebrate the work of pathologists and laboratory medicine professionals all around the world. Here are some of our favourite tweets:

Thank you!

We’d like to thank everyone who got involved in this year’s International Pathology Day celebrations. To all the speakers, panellists, participants and organisers for the College’s event and to all of you around the world who ran an event, posted on social media and helped to spread awareness. We look forward to celebrating with you again in 2019!