ASCP 2019 Annual Meeting to Promote Education, Advancement, and Discovery

The healthcare environment is rapidly changing, with new technologies and practices revolutionizing the diagnostic medicine profession. At the ASCP 2019 Annual Meeting, September 11-13, in Phoenix, pathologists, laboratory professionals and residents alike will find practical content taught by some of the most esteemed experts in the field. With 95 percent new educational content, you will gain strategies to keep your lab on the forefront of the field and learn laboratory stewardship techniques to improve outcomes, become more cost effective and enhance patient care.

Renowned Speakers Covering Crucial Topics

On September 11, Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)—one of the world’s most powerful female voices in the global fight against cancer and non-communicable diseases—will set the stage for the ASCP 2019 Annual Meeting as speaker of the Grand Opening General Session.  

On September 12, Michael Schubert, editor of The Pathologist, will moderate alively panel debate on test utilization management. Six experts will each present their approach to test utilization and will engage viewers with a question-and-answer session.

ASCP Immediate Past President James L. Wisecarver, MD, PhD, FASCP, will deliver the Cindy S. Johns Lecture, “Solving the Puzzle of Big Data,” on September 12. In this session, he will discuss a new data standard being developed by the University of Nebraska Medical Center that will facilitate importing the data necessary for patient care into the electronic medical record (EMR) in a user-friendly format. The goal is that once this standard is more widely adopted, it will allow clinicians and researchers to aggregate the information in their EMRs to answer a wide array of questions that cannot be easily answered currently.

Meanwhile, attendees won’t want to miss the featured sessions on laboratory stewardship, which include The Who, What, Why, How of Testing Algorithms: Making an Impact One Test at a Time; Laboratory Stewardship Standards: Using Checklists to Improve Performance and Reimbursement; Grassroots Approaches to Grow a Lab Stewardship Program; and Utilization Management in Anatomic Pathology.

Targeted Track for Laboratory Professionals   

New this year, ASCP has developed a targeted track for laboratory professionals in four identified areas: hematology/coagulation, microbiology, transfusion medicine/blood banking, and clinical chemistry. These are specific sessions that are designed by laboratory professionals for laboratory professionals to help them gain practical, immediately-applicable knowledge.

Rae Rader, MPA, MASCP, PA(ASCP), will headline the Barbara M. Castleberry Lecture for Laboratory Professionals on September 13 with her presentation, Pathologists’ Assistant: History of a Highly

Trained Laboratory Professional and How I Became One. She’ll examine the factors surrounding this developing profession and how the growth and changes in laboratory medicine have influenced this profession.

Challenging Areas in Pathology

Pathologists will also be able to choose from dozens of sessions featuring education in the fastest growing, most challenging areas in pathology practice. These include artificial intelligence for the pathology laboratory, computational pathology, cellular therapy, digital pathology, genetic/molecular testing for patient care and immuno-oncology.

During the Arthur Purdy Stout Society Lecture for Pathologists on September 13, presenter Esther Oliva, MD, will highlight the new HPV system of classification of endocervical adenocarcinomas, the new classification on patterns of invasion in endocervical adenocarcinoma and changes in the latest International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging systems of cervical carcinoma.

Prepare for Board Exam

The ASCP Annual Meeting is the perfect opportunity for pathology residents to learn from renowned educators as they navigate the challenging issues they’ll face in their future practice. They will gain insights on the field through hundreds of hours of education in dozens of topic areas, and will also be able to prepare for their board exam with the Resident Review Series. The series is a group of five, 1.5 hour sessions covering challenging, high-interest topic areas to prepare residents for exam day.

Residents can also do a deep dive by attending the Michele D. Raible Lecture for Residents on September 12, where ASCP Chief Medical Officer Dan A. Milner, Jr., MD, MSc(Epi), FASCP, will present Cerebral Malaria: An Allegory of Disease, Statistics, and “Buying the 9s.” Dr. Milner will discuss cerebral malaria, a disease he has studied for over 20 years, as a model to illustrate the challenges of global health and the costs of health care and public health globally.

ASCP 2019 has education that will suit your individual needs, whether you’re a pathologist, laboratory professional or resident. Be sure to take advantage of the ASCP 2019 Annual Meeting to gain practical, immediately-applicable knowledge and form valuable relationships that will last throughout your career and lifetime!

Learn more about and register for the ASCP 2019 Annual Meeting here.