New Frontiers in Pathology is a unique educational event intended to meet the ongoing educational needs of practicing pathologists. Continuous medical education (CME) is required for maintenance of licensure by virtually all state licensing bodies. Satisfying CME requirements hinges on earning a minimum number of American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award category 1 credits through various activities, including courses like New Frontiers in Pathology that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. Self-assessment modules (SAMs) are a key component of the American Board of Pathology expectations for maintenance of board certification. Beginning in 2006, the American Board of Pathology granted only time-limited certificates as part of an American Board of Medical Specialties–wide process for maintenance of board certification. Maintenance of board certification has requirements in 4 categories: professional standing, life-long learning and self-assessment, cognitive expertise, and evaluation of performance in practice. Life-long learning and self-assessment includes not only the traditional elements of CME but also the SAMs that are defined as educational products comprising self-administered examinations with a predetermined minimum performance level and a mechanism for receiving feedback. New Frontiers in Pathology will offer SAMs, in addition to the American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award category 1 credits, which it has been accredited to do since its inception, at its 2012 conference scheduled for August 3 through August 5 at The Homestead Resort, Michigan's largest waterfront resort on beautiful Lake Michigan.
New Frontiers in Pathology offers CME credits and SAMs through a unique curriculum that combines 3 plenary and keynote lectures intended to focus on cutting-edge discoveries likely to be of interest to all pathologists, 21 short (20–30 minute) case presentations intended to illustrate practical approaches to diagnostic challenges using modern diagnostic techniques, and breakout sessions that provide a less-formal setting in which to review cases with expert faculty. Enduring materials from these conferences include not only handouts but also online video clips in which audio is synchronized with slide presentations, a resource to which attendees can return when confronted with challenges in the course of daily practice or when educating others.
The list of past and present New Frontiers in Pathology plenary and keynote speakers reads like a Who's Who of not only University of Michigan faculty but also internationally recognized leaders in surgical and hematopathology from across the country, some of them alumni of Michigan's training programs: Henry Appelman, MD (2007 and 2010); Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD (2007, 2011, and 2012); Thomas Colby, MD (2007); Kathleen Cho, MD (2008); Ulysses Balis, MD (2008); E. Leon Barnes, MD (2008); Thomas Giordano, MD, PhD (2009); Jay Hess, MD, PhD (2009); John Goldblum, MD (2009); Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson, MD (2010); W. Dwayne Lawrence, MD, MSc (Path) (2010); Joel Greenson, MD (2011); Elaine Jaffe, MD (2011); Philip Cagle, MD (2012); and John Hart, MD (2012). Lecture topics draw on the experience of opinion leaders who have played key roles in defining and refining disease categories. For example, last year's A. James French Lecture, delivered by keynote speaker Elaine Jaffe, MD, head of the Hematopathology Section in the Laboratory of Pathology at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, focused on the evolution of the current classification of lymphomas with a focus on implications for clinical management and translational research. Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, SP Hicks Endowed Professor of Pathology and Urology at the University of Michigan, Director of Cancer Bioinformatics and the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, demonstrated the future of personalized oncology medicine through integrative, high-throughput sequencing as demonstrated in his ongoing MI-ONCOSEQ (Michigan Oncology Sequencing Project) clinical trial.1 Joel Greenson, MD, professor of pathology at the University of Michigan and past president of the Gastrointestinal Pathology Society, focused on the evolving role of diagnostic pathologists in managing patients with an increasingly complex array of colitides. At our 2012 conference, Dr Chinnaiyan will again join us to update attendees on the rapidly evolving approach to high-throughput sequencing for personalizing the care of patients with solid tumors. Philip Cagle, MD, editor-in-chief of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, director of pulmonary pathology at The Methodist Hospital, in Houston, Texas, and professor of pathology at Weill Medical College, Cornell University, in New York, New York, will review the changing and increasingly important role of pathologists in diagnosis and management of patients with non–small cell lung carcinoma in a molecular age. John Hart, MD, professor of pathology at the University of Chicago, this year's A. James French Lecturer, will focus on diagnostic challenges in liver pathology, a common problem in almost any pathology practice.
Selected components of the conference held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in October 2011 have been transformed into articles in this special section of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine to extend our educational opportunity to a broader community of practitioners and trainees. This builds on proceedings previously published in 2009 and 2010 special sections of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Plenary and keynote lecturers from 2008 and 2009 conferences contributed review articles that have become important resources covering a broad range of topics that include pathologic classification of selected salivary gland neoplasms2 ; implications of laboratory discoveries for our understanding of ovarian carcinogenesis3 ; managing patients with acute myeloid leukemia using modern molecular tools based on a rapidly evolving understanding of molecular diversity4 ; an integrated clinical, pathologic, and molecular approach to adrenocortical tumors5 ; and controversies in the diagnosis of Barrett esophagus and related dysplasia.6 Together with first author Lisa Cerilli, MD, Dr Greenson has contributed a comprehensive review article on differential diagnosis of colitis in endoscopic biopsies7 in this the latest special section of the Archives, certain to be an important resource for the thousands of pathologists who confront, on a regular basis, the diagnostic challenges of the sort targeted in New Frontiers in Pathology. Other contributions from University of Michigan faculty and trainees, and guest speaker Philip Cagle, MD, and his coauthor Sergio Pina-Oviedo, MD, draw from case presentations and breakout sessions to review common and uncommon diagnostic problems. The range of topics is certain to include something of interest to most practitioners and includes comprehensive reviews of lymphomas of the gastrointestinal tract, cutaneous lymphomas, diffuse malignant mesotheliomas, clear cell tumors of the central nervous system, various diseases that may secondarily or primarily affect skeletal muscle, metaplastic breast carcinomas, tenosynovial giant cell tumors, a subset of high-grade carcinomas involving the renal sinus, hepatoblastoma, hypersensitivity pneumonia, and mantle cell lymphoma.
Keeping pace with demands for life-long learning and self-assessment in an age of information overload, escalating public expectations, and increasing regulatory oversight is challenging. New Frontiers in Pathology is intended to help by offering a unique opportunity to learn from experts while enjoying the amenities of an idyllic academic setting on the campus of the University of Michigan or a world class resort on the shores of Lake Michigan.
References
Jeffrey Myers, MD, received his doctor of medicine degree from Washington University in St. Louis, having spent his first 2 years of medical school at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. He remained at Washington University to do a residency in anatomic pathology before moving to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to pursue fellowship training in surgical and pulmonary pathology with his mentor, Anna-Luise Katzenstein, MD. He remained a member of the faculty at UAB before moving to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he served for nearly a decade as chair of the Department of Anatomic Pathology. He is currently the A. James French Professor of Diagnostic Pathology and director of the Divisions of Anatomic Pathology and MLabs Program at the University of Michigan. For the past 3 years, he has worked with his friend and colleague Joel Greenson, MD, to codirect New Frontiers in Pathology, a continuous medical education course offered by the University of Michigan.
Dr Myers has had a long-standing interest in diagnostic pulmonary pathology as evidenced by nearly 140 peer reviewed publications, 15 book chapters, and more than 300 invited presentations. He serves on a number of editorial boards and is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Beyond his interest in pulmonary pathology, his professional passions include safety and quality, innovation, and continuing medical education. He has served as codirector of short courses for both the American Society of Clinical Pathology and the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP); worked with Anna-Luise Katzenstein, MD, to develop a course for practicing pathologists entitled Pathology of the Lung; codirected the USCAP Diagnostic Pathology week-long, summer course; collaborated with his friend, mentor, and colleague Krishnan Unni, MD, for more than a decade as codirector of the Mayo Clinic's Practical Surgical Pathology courses; served for 13 years as member, short course coordinator, and chair of the USCAP Education Committee; was codirector of the 2011 USCAP Long Course; and currently chairs the USCAP's Innovative Educational Products Committee (IEPC). At the 2012 annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the USCAP launched MyPath, the first educational product developed by the IEPC. New Frontiers in Pathology is the culmination of his career-long interest in continuing education for pathologists.
Joel K. Greenson, MD, received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He did his residency training in pathology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, and completed a 2-year fellowship in gastrointestinal pathology at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, Maryland) under the mentorship of John Yardley, MD. After working as an assistant professor of pathology for 3 years at Ohio State University (Columbus), Dr Greenson returned to the University of Michigan, where he is currently a professor of pathology. Dr Greenson is a past president of the Gastrointestinal Pathology Society. He is one of the editors of Sternberg's Diagnostic Surgical Pathology (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and recently coauthored and edited a textbook on gastrointestinal pathology (Diagnostic Pathology Gastrointestinal, Amirsys Inc, Salt Lake City, Utah). He serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Human Pathology, and the American Journal of Clinical Pathology. He has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications.