President's Newsletter
January 2022
13 January 2022
(Last updated: 13 Jan 2022 09:10)
On behalf of the BDIAP, I wish all members the best for 2022 and sincerely hope that it will be less disrupted than the past 2 years.
I start this newsletter with mention of Professor Kristin Henry, who died in the latter part of 2021. She was an immense figure both within our Division and the central IAP and our website now hosts an obituary celebrating her life and contribution to pathology. Thanks go to Professor Mary Leader and Dr Ann Sandison for putting this together.
BDIAP Strategy Day 2021
In October 2021, Council met for a Strategy Day to discuss the successes and failures of the past decade, and then look at how the division can best serve its members for the foreseeable future. This was preceded by our regular Council meeting and it was truly a pleasure to finally see everyone in person for the first time in over a year.
A lot of work was done over the weekend, with the key decisions being to create a new subcommittee, which we have called "Engagement and Collaboration", its remit to expand our involvement within member countries outside the United Kingdom, to engage with Allied Scientists (Biomedical scientists and Clinical scientist), and increase involvement with the ever-increasing requirements for education in molecular pathology.
Also, with our portfolio of education expanding, it was agreed there was a need for increased numbers within Council, so two new posts have been created, one for a UK-based pathologist and one for a potential who is either a clinical scientist or a biomedical scientist. All these proposals were taken to the membership at the Annual General Meeting and approved, and I am delighted that Professor Stefan Dojcinov has agreed to be the first Officer in charge of this new subcommittee. We look forward to this subcommittee developing over the coming years.
Indeed, we have already started this engagement progress, with a BDIAP-sponsored session at the November meeting of the Dutch Society of Pathology and thanks go to Dr Jan von der Thusen and Professor Neil Shepherd for getting this venture started. A review of the meeting can be found here.
There were many other suggestions for improvement across all the other subcommittees, and a summary of the action plan is available through the website.
BDIAP Strategy Day Summary
BDIAP (joint with BAUP) Symposium on Urological Pathology 2021
In relation to other activities, the second half of 2021 saw the division returning to a full program of activity, with the November meeting on urological pathology, organised in association with the British Association of Urological Pathologists (BAUP) being a most successful event with world-class international speakers and nearly 200 delegates onsite. There were a few requests for a hybrid meeting but Council felt that it would be more financially appropriate to hold a purely live event and then make talks available for registered delegates on our website. Talks will then be made available to all members after a 3-month period. Thanks go to Dr Lisa Browning and Professor Dan Berney who helped put the programme together.
Some of the faculty from the BDIAP (joint with BAUP) Symposium on Urological Pathology
From left to right; Professor Andrew Nicholson (BDIAP President), Dr Lisa Browning, Professor George Netto, Professor Holger Moch, Professor Clare Verrill and Dr Ashish Chandra
BDIAP Schools in 2021
The division also managed to post online events in East Africa and Bosnia during the second half of 2021, both these BDIAP Schools being highly successful and well attended. We thank all the involved speakers, Dr Matthew Clarke, Professor Roger Feakins, Dr Cyril Fisher, Professor Andrew Nicholson and Dr Khin Thway, for giving their time to provide talks and make themselves available for Q&A session, sometimes at inconvenient hours!
Thank you also to Dr Eduardo Calonje who, after a year of relative inactivity, managed to put all these events together in a short period of time.
Meetings in 2022
Looking forward to 2022, we already have a program for a meeting with the South African Division of the IAP clinic-in January. Programmes are being finalised for a Study Day on Molecular Pathology and a Study Day on Approach to Cut-Up on the 7 and 8 March respectively, both taking place as virtual events. More information can be found via the linked images below. Thanks go to Dr Matthew Clarke and Dr Paul Craig for the development of these programmes.
7th BDIAP Molecular Pathology Study Day 14th BDIAP Approach to Cut-up Study Day
There is also a planned joint meeting with the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland in Liverpool for the 28-30 June and our planned November meeting will be on Upper GI pathology on the 18 and 19 November at the RCOG in London.
ICCR Datasets
The Division is regularly asked to provide feedback on International Collaboration for Cancer Reporting (ICCR) datasets. If you wish to do so, please follow the link below.
ICCR Datasets
Finally, we thank Professor Roger Feakins and Professor Silvana Di Palma who have demitted from Council after 3 years and for all their hard work and volunteering. We now welcome Dr Manuel Rodriguez-Justo, Dr Kirsty Lloyd, Professor Maria Calaminici and Dr Katalin Boros, and look forward to their involvement in our activities over the coming years.
Professor Andrew Nicholson
President
BDIAP
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