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Webinars and Sponsored Roundtables — Register Now

Thursday, April 30, 2026, 11:00 AM–12:00 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss how Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) is utilizing
the oncoReveal® Nexus 21-gene panel to redefine turnaround time and actionable insights
in cancer care. Dr. Ewalt shares a perceptive look at the clinical need for rapid, front-line NGS sequencing, and how a unique, purpose built targeted NGS panel (Pillar Biosciences’ oncoReveal Nexus 21 gene Panel) was developed, validated and implemented clinically by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK-REACT) to complement their current comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) approach.

Webinar presenter Mark Ewalt, MD, Associate Medical Director for Laboratory Operations for Diagnostic Molecular Pathology in the Molecular Diagnostics Service, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, MSKCC.

Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY

CAP TODAY does not endorse any of the products or services named within. The webinar is made possible by a special educational grant from Pillar Biosciences.

Register Now

Thursday, May 28, 2026, 1:00–2:00 PM ET
This session is designed to improve understanding and application of recent updates to synoptic pathology reporting protocols such as the latest Reporting Template for Reporting Results of Biomarker Testing of Specimens from Patients with Carcinoma of the Breast. These changes reflect evolving clinical guidelines that directly influence diagnostic accuracy and treatment selection in breast cancer care.

Webinar presenters Thaer Khoury, MD, FCAP, Chair, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Cente, and Colin Murphy,  CEO of mTuitive.

Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY

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Molecular pathology selected abstracts

December 2020—Next-generation sequencing-based mutation testing of various cancer types is clinically indicated and widely used to diagnose disease, inform potential therapeutic targets, prognosticate disease course, and monitor responses to targeted and nontargeted therapies. The genetic variants discovered by tumor-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) can be somatically acquired by the neoplastic cells or a fixed inherited component of the patient’s germline genome. Distinguishing the germline versus somatic status of tumor NGS-defined variants is of significant clinical importance not only for patient care but possibly for patients’ families. Because many cancers have a substantial inherited component, the discovery of a pathogenic germline mutation by tumor-based NGS may have substantial familial implications. For example, being aware of a cancer risk allele, such as BRCA1, can lead to the use of highly effective interventions to prevent or treat the related cancer in family members. Consensus guidelines recommend germline genetic testing only for those cancer patients who have a clinical presentation or family history suggestive of hereditary disease.

Q&A column

Q. Can a heel stick for a basic metabolic panel with magnesium and phosphorus be performed on a two-month-old baby? Read answer.
Q. Due to nationwide supply shortages affecting COVID-19 and other testing in the laboratory, we are concerned about using up critical supplies when assessing competency. Do you have suggestions or strategies we can use? Read answer.
Q. When a patient is admitted to our hospital, we collect MRSA nares PCR, MRSA axilla by culture, MRSA groin by culture, and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus by PCR for infection control purposes. Many surrounding facilities have told us they have removed the axilla and groin cultures, but no references were cited to support removing these procedures. Our facility would like to follow the practices of other hospitals, but our providers would like a reference to cite.

Are there best practices or benchmarks from an infection control and microbiology point of view that would allow us to remove the axilla and groin MRSA screen cultures? Read answer.

Newsbytes

New NovoPath CEO settled in and taking questions
December 2020—CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle recently spoke with Promise Okeke, who took the helm as CEO of NovoPath last summer. Here’s what Okeke had to say about NovoPath’s case distribution module, customer service, and the advantages of offering a best-of-breed system, among other topics.

Put It on the Board

December 2020—Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing: Monitoring and Trend Analysis is a new CAP program that is beginning to roll out to laboratories this month. The CDC guidance for antibiotic stewardship consists of seven core elements to address resistance-associated risks, one of which points to the importance of laboratory collaboration, communication, and AST reporting practices to the success of stewardship programs. According to this core element, the laboratory must provide information to guide discussions on the potential implementation of test interpretive criteria, such as changes in antibiotic breakpoints, that might affect antibiotic use.

Making peace with saliva, pooled testing

November 2020—Adam Barker, PhD, D(ABMM), was ready to call it quits. For weeks, he had been working to bring saliva-based SARS-CoV-2 testing to ARUP Laboratories and the University of Utah. Dr. Barker, director of ARUP’s COVID-19 rapid response lab, and his colleagues had done studies comparing saliva with nasopharyngeal swabs, which seemed to be following the flight of the passenger pigeon out of existence. They had wrestled with the FDA over emergency use authorization. They’d developed their own transport media, since that supply was also becoming extinct. He had begun building kits for saliva collection and figured out what sample size worked best. Kits had been delivered to collection sites on campus, and staff were being trained in their use. He was, in other words, creating a laboratory success story, one of the many that have been written since March. He was not basking in this fact. “I have to tell you: I lost so much sleep because of saliva,” says Dr. Barker, who is also director, ARUP Institute for Clinical and Experimental Pathology.

Checklist, CLIA line up on COVID reporting

November 2020—It’s been well understood since the Ten Commandments that rules that appear simple in theory can be fiendishly complex or even impossible to execute. The pandemic is providing a perfect example of that in the laboratory world, but with added twists, at least for now.

Three at AACC: rapid STI testing, toxicology, biosafety

November 2020—Point-of-care testing for sexually transmitted infections, toxicology investigation, and biosafety practices are three of the hundreds of topics that will come online next month during AACC’s virtual annual meeting.

Fewer urine cultures — series of changes add up

November 2020—Five years after putting in place a urine reflex algorithm at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, and many tweaks later, Melanie Yarbrough, PhD, D(ABMM), D(ABCC), has tips to share on how to increase the odds for success in reducing the number of urine cultures.

At POC and in lab, 2 new checks on SARS-CoV-2 testing

November 2020—The CAP released in September its proficiency testing program for SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing, with the first shipment to laboratories set for Nov. 30. It also introduced recently a Quality Cross Check program that makes it possible for labs performing nucleic acid amplification testing for SARS-CoV-2 to monitor performance across multiple instruments, in compliance with the CMS directive prohibiting proficiency testing on multiple instruments.

Compass on COVID: What test for whom and when—lab leaders talk

November 2020—Testing saliva, stocking up, and expanding capacity were top of mind when members of the Compass Group convened by Zoom on Sept. 1 for a second COVID-19-related call with CAP TODAY publisher Bob McGonnagle. Antigen testing, too, came up, and the question to answer there, said Susan Fuhrman, MD, of OhioHealth, is why the test is performed and what will be done with the result. That and more—testing for patients undergoing treatment for cancer, flu season—were up for discussion. Others on the call were Greg Sossaman, MD, of Ochsner; Lauren Anthony, MD, and Heather Dawson of Allina; Sarah Province and Julie Hess of AdventHealth; James Crawford, MD, PhD, of Northwell; Stan Schofield and Robert Carlson, MD, of MaineHealth; Sterling Bennett, MD, MS, of Intermountain; John Carey, MD, of Henry Ford; and Pamela Murphy, PhD, APRN, of MUSC Health. The Compass Group is an organization of not-for-profit IDN system lab leaders who collaborate to identify and share best practices and strategies. (For our coverage of their first call with CAP TODAY, see “Compass points chart the pandemic,” September 2020.) Here is what they told us on Sept. 1.

 

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