Back from USCAP meeting in Denver this week. Have attended this 10 of past 11 years and think this year’s was the best. Certainly the biggest and best laid out in recent memory. More of an international audience as well, presumably given weaker dollar, travel to US more affordable.
Scientific sessions outstanding and evening lecture presented by Dr. Christopher Fletcher, a well-known (soft tissue) pathologist at BWH-HMS, presented a frank look at the challenges and opportunities facing practicing pathologists and impact to academic anatomic pathology departments.
Of note pertinent to this blog was the visibility of digital pathology. It was everywhere at the meeting. Of course images, including whole slide are now available as opppesed to the old days when glass slides were sent weeks before the meeting (ideally) and return of such slides was required to obtain your "tickets" to the courses. Broken or lost slides were billed seperately. Long gone are the slide projectors and the giants of the field carrying stacks and stacks of carousels. Following the meeting in years past a set of kodachromes would be mailed. Handouts with pertinent clinical history, diagnosis and discussion were distributed prior to the scientific sessions. That of course is also online at USCAP’s eKnowledge Hub. Ironically, this information was hard to come by unless you registered for and attended those sessions. Even the evening specialty sessions open to all discouraged taking handouts unless you intended on attending the session that night. Posters submitted electronically for printing and pick up at the meeting can also be viewed. Residents carrying poster tubes through the airport are no longer as common. Far more were viewing slides from the talks on their iPhones rather than carrying slide holders to get into the session in the first place.
While most vendors in the spacious exhibit hall commented less traffic overall, the vendors with products and applications pertinent to this space reported increased interest and knowledge among the attendees.
New and old vendors, new software releases, new platforms, enhanced scanning, viewing, quicker, cheaper, easier, with enhanced practical tools and uses — all signs of a healthy marketplace.
