From the President’s Desk
August 2022—The CAP has been advocating for an increase in residency slots that would help give more young physicians the opportunity to embrace careers in pathology. We support the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act, bipartisan legislation that is working its way through both chambers of Congress. It would add 14,000 Medicare-supported residency slots over the course of seven years and help ensure an open pipeline for pathologists. Between pandemic burnout and the retirement cliff resulting from an aging population of physicians, we are facing a shortage of all physicians, pathologists included. The CAP projects that the number of pathologists will shrink in the coming years. Unfortunately, when there are not enough pathologists to lead clinical laboratory teams, it creates a gap that has to be filled somehow. Many of us have already seen health care gaps being filled by people with less extensive and intensive training.