PATH News Network Daily Edition

On Message: Takeaways from CAP Media Training

• College of American Pathologists

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Nancy Johnson

Women make big strides in the pathologist ranks. We look at the numbers. Plus, making the most of your moment in the media, how CAP training can keep you confident, cool, and on message. These stories and more next.

Nancy Johnson

This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Friday, July 10th. Women now make up a majority of recently certified U.S. pathologists, a milestone that mirrors their strides in medicine more broadly. According to an analysis in the latest issue of the Academic Pathology Journal, 53% of pathologists certified since 2006 identified as women, a jump from 27% prior to 2006. Yet the University of Washington researchers found that the overall proportion of women with active certification remains under 50%, noting that recent progress has not yet overcome the more widespread exclusion of women in the past. Racial and ethnic disparities show no signs of abating. The analysis found that 62% of recently certified pathologists identifying as white, 27% as Asian, and just 4% as black or African American. The researchers analyzed demographic data from the American Board of Pathology, covering more than 39,000 board certified pathologists.

Nancy Johnson

Meanwhile, July 31st is the deadline for practices to submit data required under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act, or PAMA, which will be used to set Medicare fees for clinical laboratory fees starting January 1st, 2027. Remember to allow time to prepare the data and for identity verification, which can take several days. The current PAMA reporting period is for services performed from January 1st through June 30th, 2025. Failure to submit individual rates may result in your data not being included and could lead to penalties. You can find resources to help you through the process as well as background on PAMA on the CAP or CMS websites. Finding a clear, concise message can be a challenge, says Dr. Adam Cloh, an alumnus of the CAP's media training sessions.

Dr. Adam Cloe

Think about what should be your top line thing that you were saying. In the same way that in our reports, we think about we have a top line diagnosis, which is really the first thing that people see, and it's in bold. And then all of the rest of the stuff that we do is in smaller font and is further down. And so it's thinking about what is really the top line thing that you want people to take away. And to also make sure that if you are if you have a specific point you are trying to make, making sure you can stay on that point.

Nancy Johnson

Dr. Clo is a hematopathologist at Los Angeles General Medical Center. The last free CAP media training session for the year is set for August 21st. But training isn't just for pathologists who speak to the press or make presentations.

Dr. Adam Cloe

It really applies to all areas of our professional career. I always tell our residents one of the most important things that you can do is to make sure that you are communicating with all of the people around you because we work as a team, and the team works best when we're able to explain what is going on and what we think and how we're seeing things.

Nancy Johnson

Again, the last free session of the year is August 21st. Go to the CAP calendar of events to register.

Nancy Johnson

And finally, this week we told you about the CAP's Path Artist of the Month, Dr. Elizabeth Bozner, who captured a star-like asteroid body on a lymph nose slide. Be sure to go to the CAP's social media channel so you can see it. But imagine using a brush and watercolors to paint each cell you see under your microscope. For Dr. Leonie Schon, the microscopic world is her muse. Dr. Schon's intricate paintings depict tissues and diseases and even the techniques pathologists use to view them. One series of watercolors captures skin, cartilage, and colon images in a bright pentachrome stain. The pathologist from Oberhausen, Germany, has a large and growing social media following, but she says she doesn't consider her pieces science communication. Quote, it's more about showing off what the body can do, she told the scientist website. Find a link in our show notes to her gallery. That's all for today's daily edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Got a story you'd like for us to cover on the daily edition? Write to us at stories at CAP.org. We're back on Monday at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of the Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great day.