During this unprecedented 2020-2021 academic year, our Duke Pathology Faculty, Fellows and Residents managed to show their leadership strength and presence at the 110th United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) Annual Meeting, held on March 13-18, 2021, which went completely virtual for the first time in history. Initially planned to be held in Baltimore, MD, the COVID pandemic-induced virtual meeting turned out to be even more memorable than expected.
In place of the cocktails and d’oeuvres served in the convention hall ballrooms, pathologists across the world joined together online to share their experiences and knowledge not only about science, but how to handle life in the new normal. Featured Faculty speakers included Dr. Sara Miller who presented on electron microscopic findings of Sars-Cov2 (Ultrastructural Findings of Coronaviruses) while Dr. Carolyn Glass gave a talk on COVID-19 findings in the cardiovascular system (A Novel Coronavirus Meets the Cardiovascular System: What We Know and How We Know It), and Dr. Diana Cardona gave an impactful talk on facing challenges in the anatomic pathology lab in the setting of a pandemic (From Pushing Glass to Helping Combat COVID-19). Alongside the excellent Faculty talks, Duke Pathology continued to showcase themselves as leaders in artificial intelligence and computational pathology through a platform presentation addressing detection of COVID via deep learning applied to peripheral blood smears.
Duke’s leadership presence was further highlighted with Dr. Elizabeth Pavlisko’s educational case presentation in the Pulmonary Evening Specialty Conference, along with several Duke Faculty serving as Moderators of various platforms (Dr. Thomas Cummings, Session Chair for the American Association of Ophthalmic Oncologists and Pathologists Companion Society Meeting; Dr. Carolyn Glass, Session Chair for the Pulmonary Platform Session and Dr. Cynthia Guy, Session Chair for the Hans Popper Hepatopathology Companion Society Meeting).
Dr. Thomas Cummings states, “I applaud the USCAP for making the virtual setup a tremendous success. The opportunity to watch the lectures and submit questions prior to the live Q&A session was beneficial for the attendees, panelists, and moderators. The virtual format allows for more education by not having travel/financial restrictions and by not having to choose between sessions with conflicting times.”
Numerous Duke “posters” presented as 3-minute video presentations were very well received and covered a range of topics from breast, cardiac, cytology, dermatologic, hematologic, renal and soft tissue pathology (see full pdf listing here). A special highlight included a presentation by Dr. Derald Charles, PGY-2 whose poster was selected as a finalist in the Society of Cardiovascular Pathology’s Young Investigator Award Competition.
We anticipate and look forward to an even better upcoming year as we recover and prepare for next year’s meeting in Los Angeles, California at USCAP 2022. Hope to “see” you there one way or the other!
