Throughout the COVID pandemic, the CAP has worked to introduce innovative hybrid and virtual inspection models to ensure safety for our inspectors and laboratories while working around evolving travel restrictions. During this podcast, Francis Sharkey, MD, FCAP, one of the pioneers of this new model, will discuss how he refined his inspection process and how the tools that he developed overlap with what the CAP provides. Dr. Sharkey, who is with UT Health in San Antonio, Texas, has completed both hybrid and virtual inspections for domestic and international laboratories.

To stay up-to-date with the latest information on the CAP’s inspection models during the pandemic, go to cap.org and search “Inspector Tools and Training”.

The CAP’s Accuracy-Based programs use genuine human specimens that exhibit essentially no matrix effects. Such samples can be used to compare different methods to each other and to reference methods. In so doing, pathologists and laboratory professionals can assess whether the method used in their laboratories is accurate, not just that your performance matches your peer group. In this CAPcast, Gary Horowitz, MD, FCAP, Chair of the CAP’s Accuracy-Based Programs Committee, explains why it’s important to incorporate accuracy-based testing into your quality process.

For more information about the CAP’s Accuracy-Based programs, please visit https://capatholo.gy/3qtcJMF.

State pathology societies strengthen the profession and bolster pathology’s influence on advocacy issues at the state and federal levels. When working with elected officials, we know that the number of members in an organization and the viability of the organization affects its ability to guide policy and impact decisions, explains Matthew Foster, MD, FCAP, vice-chair of the CAP’s Federal and State Affairs Committee and immediate past president of the Virginia Society for Pathology, in this CAPcast interview. Dr. Foster will be leading a session on state advocacy at the Pathologists Leadership Summit, which will be held virtually May 1-4, 2021.

There's a lot of hype surrounding artificial intelligence (or AI) and pathology. Indeed, many pathologists are afraid that AI or machine learning will replace them. But there’s no evidence to suggest that pathologists will be replaced by the robots just yet, explains Matthew Hanna, MD, FCAP in this CAPcast interview. Dr. Hanna will be leading a session on this topic at the Pathologists Leadership Summit, which will be held virtually May 1-4, 2021.

The current state of health care is mandating consolidation and integration of practices and laboratories. The scope and rapid pace of these changes, particularly amidst the COVID pandemic, is unsettling and disruptive to staff and can lead to unusually large numbers of resignations. It’s unlikely this will slow down in the near future, and therefore, it’s important for pathologists who will lead and be part of these changes to be cognizant of the impact of change and how they might mitigate and facilitate the process, explains Moira Larsen, MD, FCAP, in this CAPcast. Dr. Larsen will be leading a session on navigating change at the Pathologists Leadership Summit, which will be held virtually May 1-4, 2021.

Surveys have shown hesitancy among African Americans to take the COVID vaccine, much to the concern of physician and public health experts, who emphasize the perils posed by immunizations gaps in certain populations to overall public health. But it’s important to understand this hesitancy, explains Valerie Fitzhugh, MD, FCAP, who is Associate Professor and Chair of Pathology at both the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Submitting quantitative PT results manually can be time consuming, can drain laboratory resources, and is subject to human error. CAP customers can now simplify this process by using direct transmission. In this CAPcast interview, Tim Aukerman, Corporate Quality Assessment Manager at Quest Diagnostics, discusses his experience with directly transmitting PT results to the CAP via the Data Innovations Instrument Manager. Tim has oversight of quality initiatives—including PT—across Quest Diagnostics and led the switch to using direct transmission across more than 100 Quest regional and rapid response labs.

In this CAPcast interview, Tim Aukerman, Corporate Quality Assessment Manager at Quest Diagnostics, discusses his experience with direct transmission of PT results. Tim has oversight of quality initiatives including PT across Quest and has overseen the implementation and use of direct transmission across multiple Quest Labs.

There are several methods for workup of urinary tract infections or UTIs and utilizing the appropriate test(s) on the appropriate patients can allow for prompt and appropriate treatment and symptom relief, as well as reduce unnecessary testing and unnecessary treatment with antimicrobials, explains Dr. Stacy Beal, in this CAPcast. Dr. Beal, a pathologist at UF Health in Gainesville, Florida and member of the CAP's Quality Practices Committee, has helped to develop a new CAP testing module focused on UTIs, which can now be found on CAP.org: https://capatholo.gy/38dpl3L.

Pathologists have long been at the forefront of biobanking practices, assuring that biospecimens from patients are properly collected and processed for diagnostic procedures. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, pathologists and laboratory technicians have had to develop and implement new biosafety procedures to protect themselves and patients and they are also often involved in research into new therapies, explains Dr. Jim Vaught, editor-in-chief of the journal Biopreservation and Biobanking. In this CAPcast, Dr. Vaught discusses the special challenges involved in developing protocols to work with biospecimens collected from patients during an infectious disease emergency, as well as the role that biobanks play in the development of COVID vaccines and therapies.

More resources related to biobanking and biorepositories can be found on CAP.org under the Biorepository Accreditation Program: https://capatholo.gy/3rzSPkg.

About 85% of board-certified pathologists are reporting that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted their practices, according to a recent CAP survey: https://capatholo.gy/2HmFTLZ.

In this CAPcast interview, Dr. Thomas Wheeler discusses the survey’s findings, which confirm the pandemic’s ongoing adverse effects on pathologists as the United States has relied on COVID-19 testing throughout this national crisis. Dr. Wheeler is chair of the CAP’s Policy Roundtable Steering Committee.