Health Tech Event Roundup: USCAP 111th Annual Meeting

The 111th Annual Meeting of USCAP (the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology) took place as an in-person event from March 19 to 24 in Los Angeles, California. This year’s meeting carried the theme of Real Intelligence.

The USCAP mission statement declares that they are dedicated to creating a better pathologist. The organisation strives to provide the ultimate in continuing medical education and translational research to improve practices and patient outcomes globally. While global health through education is a strategic initiative, the diverse educational activities provided by USCAP ensure personalised education that will influence personalised medicine. Modern educational delivery methods using digital assets prepare pathologists for next generation learning and make possible outreach to colleagues working in low-resource countries.

In line with this dedication to modern educational delivery methods, the 111th Annual Meet offered a hybrid structure, with online content and short courses available for members throughout April and May.

USCAP recap

This year the plenary sessions covered Maude Abbott’s legacy and the usual USCAP honours, as well as a Timely Topics lecture from Nathan Kaufman. The Luminaries in Pathology sessions were focused around pathology of the breast, and endocrine / head and neck. In these fascinating sessions Dr Stuart Schnitt and Dr Virginia LiVolsi guided attendees through challenging cases in a virtual slide session. They spent the hour sharing diagnostic pearls and cautionary tales while engaging audience members in discussion during the interactive session.

Technology and diagnostics at the forefront

The theme for this year’s event was reflected in the content of the presentations and short courses, with diagnostics taking centre stage in the short courses. Attendees could access a course to inform about Diagnostic Problems and Practical Approaches in Breast Core Needle Biopsy, as well as Common Diagnostic Challenges in GI Pathology, Getting to a Meaningful Diagnosis with Medical Liver Biopsies, and Updates on the Diagnostic Workup and Classification of Lymphoma in the Era of Advanced Molecular Diagnostics.

This focus on diagnostics in the short courses was complemented by a seminar by exhibitor PAIGE focussed on AI in Digital Pathology, and the effect that this will have on patient safety.

How Citadel Health can help

We have recently been awarded a contract to supply, deliver, install and provide maintenance and support of a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS System) with Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) for its Lighthouse Lab in the UK. The Evolution vLab LIMS solution will be used at the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab to process a range of sample types. These ‘Lighthouse Labs’, were established by the government last year to rapidly increase COVID-19 testing capacity. To read more about the project please click here.

Citadel Health is currently working with NHS Wales on a £15.9m project to future proof their pathology services. This is an incredibly exciting project and one that will allow us to transform pathology services across Wales, resulting in better, faster, and more targeted treatment for the nations patients.

The Evolution vLab Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) software will replace the current three separate systems, to create a single, world-class, modern pathology network that connects every clinician, lab, and hospital in Wales with a complete patient test management solution, all via a single login.

Once live, the system will manage the more than 35 million test requests that are processed each year by 21 NHS Wales pathology labs, and support every hospital, clinic and GP nationwide. To read more about the project click here or to contact us about your requirements please click here.