Your Voice Counts! How ASCP will Address Pathologist and Pathologist-in-Training Members’ Top Concerns

ASCP members have identified their top 10 concerns within each of their professions, according to the results of the annual ASCP Hot Topics membership survey.    

The leaders of the ASCP Pathologist Council and the ASCP Resident Council recently talked about which concerns to prioritize and how they will address them.   

"We were pleased to get such a strong response from our members, and I know that the Resident Council, under the leadership of our incoming chair, will be tackling these issues in the coming year,” says Savanah D. Gisriel, MD, MPH , FASCP, Resident Council Chair. “The ASCP Resident Council's main goal is to amplify the voices of pathology residents and fellows. The best way for us to do that is by understanding their concerns and advocating for positive changes in our profession.” 

Resident Council concerns 

Top concerns among residents and fellows are job searches, salary benchmarks, and contract negotiations.   

Sri Bharathi Kavuri, MD, Chair-elect of the Resident Council, says the council is gearing up to address some of these issues in the coming year. “The top priorities are very clear. As a freshly graduated fellow navigating my own first job contract right now, I completely understand how overwhelming and important these steps can feel,” she says.   

To kick things off, the Resident Council will co-host a roundtable with the Pathologist Council in September, titled Navigating Your Career as a New-in-Practice Pathologist. The panelists, all of whom have recently made this transition, will share practical advice and lessons learned.   

Also in collaboration with the Pathologist Council, the Resident Council will be developing a “New in Practice” toolkit, covering everything from job transitions and contract guidance to CME maintenance for medical licenses.   

Another area of focus will be laboratory directorship, a much-overlooked skill that nearly every pathologist will need early in their career, according to Dr. Kavuri. “We hope to continue our Ask Me Anything sessions on the Resident Council community page in the ASCP Communities, giving residents a chance to connect directly with peers and mentors.”  

Later, the Council will address professional growth, including public speaking and teaching skills. The Resident Council has a full agenda in the year ahead so keep an eye on announcements via social media and the online community.  

Hot topics for pathologists 

Pathologists want to stay on top of advances in pathology and subspecialty areas as well as new research. Each year, the Pathologist Council develops a set of SMART goals, which means specific, measurable, achievable and relevant. “One of our SMART goals this past year evolved around creating educational content for pathologists, and to help them stay abreast of new developments,” says Pathologist Council Chair-elect Anna Owczarczyk, MD, PhD, FASCP. “The Pathologist Council, in collaboration with the Resident Council, is creating content for social media dissemination which will target individual pathology subspecialties. 

Another topic to address is leveraging digital pathology and artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical practice. The Council is hosting a roundtable on this topic for early February 2026, featuring a panel of digital pathology/AI experts.  

“We knew, as a group, that is important and the survey results indicate that as well. We cannot ignore AI. It is already here, and there are a lot of health institutions that are already using it. We need to embrace it to make our ever increasing workload more efficient and manageable,” Dr. Owczarczyk says. 

She emphasized that the results of the Hot Topics survey give the Pathologist council mission and purpose. “We are not undertaking these projects just for ourselves, but for our members who have indicated these are critical topics in their professions that really need to be addressed,” she says. 

For example, in the previous year, many of the identified hot topics revolved around matters critical to those who are early in their practices. This led to the council’s work on the “New in Practice” toolkit which they hope will go live soon. 

Watch for updates from the Pathologist Council and the Resident Council on social media and the ASCP Online Communities!