This issue of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine hosts a special section devoted to a series of review articles selected from topics presented at the “11th Annual Midwestern Conference: Update Course in Surgical Pathology,” hosted by the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine of the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, on September 14–16, 2018. This continuing medical education (CME) activity was started in 2008 in an effort to fulfill our commitment of providing CME to our colleagues in our local community and the state of Wisconsin. We were pleasantly surprised that the attendance reached far beyond our local community and throughout the years has attracted pathologists and pathology residents and fellows from nearly every state and more than a dozen foreign countries. Given the large number of national meetings and CME offerings available, the question arose—why a new course? The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) has the particular distinction of having, in addition to the 3 standard missions of most medical schools (patient care, teaching, and research), a fourth mission, which is that of community service. We felt at the time that one way to contribute to this mission of the college would be to help our colleagues in the community keep abreast of important advances in our specialty by offering timely and state-of-the-art updates on the various advances in the field of anatomic pathology.
The course has had a steady following, mainly composed of community pathologists, with the biggest draw coming from the state of Wisconsin. Its format has slowly evolved over the years in response to suggestions and feedback from our participants. The course is always held during a weekend, starting on Friday and running through Sunday, and has historically favored luxury venues in downtown Milwaukee so that participants can enjoy the many amenities our city has to offer. An average of 20 CME category 1 credits are offered and lectures cover nearly every topic in diagnostic anatomic pathology, including cytopathology, immunopathology, and molecular pathology. We traditionally feature 4 invited guest speakers from prestigious institutions who are recognized experts in their fields. The remainder of the lectures are provided by our faculty, including some of our emerging junior faculty who have shown academic promise. The lectures are structured around a case presentation format, which then serves as a platform to discuss the specific topics more in depth. To ensure that a wider variety of topics are covered (and to ensure that the attention of the audience is maintained), most lectures are limited to 30 minutes and include an interactive electronic audience response system that allows real-time participation for live polling questions, which are then instantly displayed on the screen so that attendees can compare their answers with those of the rest of the audience. A session consisting of a slide seminar of interesting and challenging cases is presented at the end of the meeting by our senior residents and fellows, affording them an opportunity to be exposed to a large audience and to let themselves be known to potential future job partners. Electronically available self-assessment model (SAM) questions accompany the lectures given by the MCW faculty to afford the participants the opportunity to obtain SAM credits for maintenance of certification. A wine and cheese reception and interview-style fireside chats are also part of the 2019 program to encourage the participants to meet and get to know the visiting professors and the members of our faculty one-on-one.
The areas selected for the reviews in this special section cover a wide range of topics and focus on issues that are rapidly evolving and represent challenges due to changing criteria and/or newer methodologies. This special section will be presented in 2 installments; the first one, in this issue, features an update on breast cancer biomarkers by Julie Jorns, our director of breast pathology; a review of the histologic evaluation of malignant polyps and low-stage colorectal carcinoma by Catherine E. Hagen, our director of gastrointestinal pathology, and Ayesha Farooq; what is new in eosinophilic tumors of the kidney by Kenneth Iczkowski, our director of genitourinary pathology, with Rebecca Czaja; an overview of the role of ancillary studies in the diagnosis of B-cell lymphoma by Ashley Cunningham and Alexandra Harrington, our director of hematopathology; and an overview of some of the controversies surrounding the diagnosis of thyroid follicular nodules. The second installment, which will be published in the January 2020 issue of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, will include a review on microglandular adenosis of the breast by Oleksandr Kravtsov and Julie Jorns; an update on cystic lesions of the pancreas with cytologic correlations by Tamara Giorgadze, our director of cytopathology and her team, made up of Amrou Abdelkader, Bryan Hunt, Christopher Hartley, and Nicole Panarelli; a practical approach to fatty liver disease by Christopher P. Hartley, our director of hepatobiliary pathology, with Mohamed Mostafa, Amrou Abdelkader, John Evans, and Catherine Hagen; and a review of the differential diagnosis of cartilaginous lesions of bone by Petur Nielsen and his group (David Suster and Pun Hung) from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
The course has become the highlight of our academic year and has had the good fortune of having the support of not only the participants but also a great organizing team, including our Education Coordinator Shannon Majewski, CMP, and our Department Administrator Jennifer Anderson, MBA. The importance of this offering for our community cannot be overemphasized; not only does it provide CME and SAM Maintenance of Certification credits required for board and state license certification to the pathologists in our community, but it offers our faculty the opportunity to place in perspective the experience they have gained at a large referral academic medical center and share with others the lessons and insights gained from this experience. In the end, we all benefit from this exercise. It also serves the purpose of bringing the pathologists in the community closer to the pathologists in our faculty, thus helping establish ties for collaboration, consultation, and a pipeline for future pathologists for our community coming from our training programs, thus opening opportunities for networking and community engagement. I hope you will enjoy the articles in this special section of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.
Dr Suster is professor and chairman emeritus of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Dr Suster underwent training in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Greater Miami, Miami, Florida, under Arkadi M. Rywlin, MD, followed by a 2-year fellowship in Research and Surgical Pathology with Juan Rosai, MD, at the Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, Connecticut). Dr Suster then returned to the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami in 1990 and served as professor of pathology at the University of Miami School of Medicine until 1998, when he transferred to the Ohio State University (Columbus) to become professor, vice chair and director of anatomic pathology in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. In 2007, Dr Suster was recruited to become the chair of the pathology department at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, a post he held until 2018. Dr Suster's areas of interest include thoracic pathology (lung, pleura, and mediastinum), thyroid pathology, and tumors of the soft tissue and skin. He is the author of more than 400 scientific publications and the author or editor of 6 books. He is also a frequent guest speaker at all major national and international pathology meetings and has served over the years as an expert consultant for his colleagues on difficult cases in his areas of interest. Dr Suster serves as a section editor in mediastinal pathology for the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.
Dr Suster is professor and chairman emeritus of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Dr Suster underwent training in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Greater Miami, Miami, Florida, under Arkadi M. Rywlin, MD, followed by a 2-year fellowship in Research and Surgical Pathology with Juan Rosai, MD, at the Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, Connecticut). Dr Suster then returned to the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami in 1990 and served as professor of pathology at the University of Miami School of Medicine until 1998, when he transferred to the Ohio State University (Columbus) to become professor, vice chair and director of anatomic pathology in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. In 2007, Dr Suster was recruited to become the chair of the pathology department at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, a post he held until 2018. Dr Suster's areas of interest include thoracic pathology (lung, pleura, and mediastinum), thyroid pathology, and tumors of the soft tissue and skin. He is the author of more than 400 scientific publications and the author or editor of 6 books. He is also a frequent guest speaker at all major national and international pathology meetings and has served over the years as an expert consultant for his colleagues on difficult cases in his areas of interest. Dr Suster serves as a section editor in mediastinal pathology for the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.