CAPcasts

In this CAPcast, New in Practice Committee members Drs. Alan Brown and Jaclyn Rudzinski discuss common financial challenges and issues for fellows and new attendings, including common pathology practice structures as well as the importance of balancing debts and savings.

This episode is adapted from a New-in-Practice Committee Roundtable discussion originally recorded on Nov. 12, 2021. For more information on resources from the CAP New-in-Practice Committee, please visit CAP.org: https://www.cap.org/member-resources/new-in-practice.

Few pathologists receive training on laboratory IT issues, or how to manage a new installation. In this CAPcast, John Sinard, MD, FCAP, discusses the educational case he has developed to teach planning tools related to successfully implementing histology tracking software. Dr. Sinard founded the Pathology Informatics Program at the Yale School of Medicine.

This month we’ll look at the Biden administration’s relaunch of its cancer moonshot initiative, addressing social determinants of health, and more. We'll also be speaking with the CAP’s Vice Chair for the Council on Government and Professional Affairs, Dr. Joe Saad. He will provide us with updates surrounding lawsuits and the No Surprises Act.

The topic of workload distribution, whether linked to a pathologist's "productivity" and compensation or simply considered as a part of group dynamics and harmony, is often treated as a taboo subject or completely ignored by the leadership and individual pathologists alike. In this CAPcast, Moira Larsen, MD, MBA, FCAP, and Karim Sirgi, MD, MBA, FCAP, will discuss how to determine workload distribution while navigating the associated group dynamics. Dr. Larsen is currently the Physician Executive Director of MedStar Medical Group Pathology, which is part of MedStar Health, an integrated care delivery network in Washington DC and Maryland. Dr. Sirgi owns and manages Sirgi Consulting LLC, which offers expertise to medical groups in various aspects of practice management and leadership.

Drs. Sirgi and Larsen will be leading a course on this topic at the Pathologists Leadership Summit (https://www.pathologistsleadershipsummit.org/), which will be held virtually and in-person in Washington, DC on April 30 through May 3.

Feedback is a key component of learning in any field of medicine and no less so in pathology. Giving feedback can be difficult because there is little training for it and many teachers fear emotional responses from learners. In this CAPcast, Nicole Riddle, MD, FCAP, discusses how to most effectively provide and receive feedback and the importance of SMART goals.

Dr. Riddle will be leading a course on this topic at the Pathologists Leadership Summit, which will be held April 30-May 3 in Washington, DC. Learn more & register: https://www.pathologistsleadershipsummit.org/.

In 2022, CMS raised the number of points large practices need to score to avoid a MIPS penalty. Using the measures in the CAP’s registry is now the only way large practices can get enough points to meet the MIPS performance score threshold. Quality Payment Programs are here to stay, and pathologists are going to be continually subjected to evolving value-based payment programs. Eligible pathologists should consider MIPS participation as a strategy to help protect revenues as well as a strategy to demonstrate their value. A low MIPS score may affect your ability to recruit pathologists, promote your practice, or even you—if and when you move jobs and your score follows you.

Trichomoniasis is the most common, non-viral, sexually transmitted infection. Pathologists providing laboratory testing for this infection should understand the advantages and disadvantages of the commercially available, FDA approved/cleared methods, explains Mayo Clinic pathologist Bobbi Pritt, MD, FCAP, in this CAPcast. Dr. Pritt led the development of the Clinical Pathology Improvement Program offerings on this topic (capatholo.gy/3x9XUCy).

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, perinatal deaths remain an important question, particularly because the mechanism of death remains unclear. A new study just published in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine (https://capatholo.gy/3JfXHTu) found that pathology abnormalities composing SARS-CoV-2 placentitis cause widespread and severe placental destruction that can result in still births. To the best that researchers could determine, all of the mothers in this study were unvaccinated.

In this CAPcast, David Schwartz, MD, FCAP, lead author of the study, discusses the research and what conclusions pathologists and the public should take away from these findings, as well as the important epidemiological role that pathologists and the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine (archivesofpathology.org) have had in global outbreaks--from AIDS and Zika to COVID.

This month we’ll look at testing supply shortages caused by the Omicron variant, new dispute guidelines in the No Surprises Act, and more. Later, we will be speaking with the CAP’s Vice Chair on the Economic Affairs Committee, Dr. Ronald McLawhon, about the recent updates to clinical consultation codes for pathology.

Pathologists play an important role in assisting biorepositories in obtaining and setting standards for quality samples for research. In this CAPcast, Dr. Rebecca Obeng discusses the range of services and resources that biorepositories can provide researchers as well as the benefits and value of accreditation for biorepositories. Dr. Obeng is a pathologist at Northwestern Medicine and the CEO of the Sub-Saharan Africa Healthcare Initiative, a non- profit organization working to improve pathology services in Africa.

For more information on the CAP's Biorepository Accreditation Program, visit https://www.cap.org/laboratory-improvement/accreditation/biorepository-accreditation-program.