Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the January 2024 issue of the Bulletin. I hope you managed to get some well-deserved rest and relaxation in between work over the festive and New Year breaks.

I’m delighted to be taking up the baton as Bulletin Editor from Dr Shubha Allard. I start by paying tribute to Shubha’s enormous commitment and hard work over the last 4 challenging years – she will be greatly missed, having successfully steered the Bulletin through a pandemic, the College’s Diamond Jubilee and, along with the Bulletin team, a change to the new digital format, which we launch with this issue. I hope our readers will enjoy this new format, which is designed to make it easier for you to navigate your way around the content.

All the hard work on this issue was already done before I came on board. The themed articles explore perspectives on the important topic of ‘women’s health’, with examples ranging from iron deficiency in women and maternal anaemia, to the hazards of maternal transfusion and gender disparities in organ transplantation. There is much to reflect on here in terms of how we ensure that gender-specific health issues are appropriately recognised and addressed.

One of the Learning Directorate’s major ongoing projects has been the introduction of the new Learning Environment for Pathology Trainees (LEPT). In this issue, Sandra Dewar, the College’s LEPT Project Manager, explains more about the new system and its advantages. Another project bringing major benefit to trainees is the Pathology Portal, which continues to develop in leaps and bounds, recently winning the Outstanding Innovation award at the Healthcare Honours awards – congratulations to the whole team! The College’s Pathology Portal Officer Luke Thrower writes about how you can get involved and join the Pathology Portal community.

Medical microbiologists and virologists will be interested to know that the College website is the new home of the UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations, following their recent migration there. Ruhi Siddiqui and Shahmeen Ali from the UK Health Security Agency explain more about this.

Our International focus in this issue is on South East Asia, home to 17% of our members; the College’s more recent activities in that region are outlined by Professor Kedar Deodhar and Dr Ranganathan Iyer. We also have a report of the College’s International Pathology Day event, which was held in November and centred on ‘Planetary health’, with expert contributions discussing healthcare, climate and sustainability.

The College runs a number of initiatives to engage undergraduate students and foundation doctors, with the aim of inspiring them to join us in the pathology specialties. Read about our extremely popular annual Pathology Summer School, which was held in August and attracted 65 medical students from across the UK. We also introduce you to the winner of the 2023 undergraduate essay prize, Sam Parsons, and of the foundation essay prize, Sally Ashton, who wrote excellent essays on pathology and the NHS’s 75th anniversary. You can also read about the winners of the latest Art of Pathology competition.

The College’s highest accolade is the College Medal. In September, this was awarded to 4 fellows for their outstanding contributions: Dr Lance Sandle, Professor Louise Jones, Professor Roberto La Ragione and Professor Sebastian Lucas. Our very warmest congratulations go to them all.

I come to the Bulletin fresh from my term as College Vice President for Learning. One of the aspects of the role that I most enjoyed was meeting and getting to know so many talented College members and fellows in diverse specialties and from across the country and the world. It really brought home to me what a dedicated professional community we are all part of; I feel privileged that my new role will allow me to continue to engage with members, wherever you are based. Please do get in touch if you would like to make suggestions or provide feedback on the Bulletin – I’d love to hear from you.

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