Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Learn about digital pathology technology that is future-ready, yet practical for today’s
laboratory needs.
Webinar presenters Scott Hammond, Senior Systems Consultant, Digital Pathology Division, Wexner Medical Center, Department of Pathology, and Ursula Hofer, Imaging Technologist, Pathology Digital Imaging Lab, Wexner Medical Center, Department of Pathology, and Sandra Banky, PA(ASCP), Director of Operations, Wexner Medical Center, Department of Pathology.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
December 2025—Bringing next-generation sequencing (NGS) in-house can be approached in two ways: a rapid, comprehensive implementation or a gradual, progressive build. Florida Cancer Specialists opted for a rapid approach, starting with a complex pancancer solid tumor panel, which facilitated the addition of smaller assays.
December 2025—The CAP Artificial Intelligence Committee is developing a guide for laboratories on implementing AI, covering the entire machine learning life cycle. While laboratories can begin using AI now, they must ensure full validation, even for FDA-approved tools, due to potential biases and population drift.
December 2025—The absence of CDC surveillance data due to the government shutdown has created uncertainty about the severity and impact of the current respiratory virus season. While regional public health surveillance provides some insights, concerns remain about the potential for a severe season, exacerbated by vaccine hesitancy and changes in vaccine guidance.
December 2025—Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital piloted a program using drones for transporting patient samples and blood products between the hospital and cancer center. The program, using Valqari drones, achieved a 100% success rate in delivering 303 packages without any damage or temperature fluctuations.
December 2025—Massachusetts General Hospital implemented a clinical decision support solution to reduce unnecessary CBC and differential orders, particularly for inpatients. The solution involved an interruptive alert that targeted daily, more than daily, and as-needed orders, recommending alternative orders like CBCs without differentials.
December 2025—Pathologists will receive a 0.34% payment rate increase in the 2026 Medicare physician fee schedule, offset by a 2.5% efficiency adjustment. The College of American Pathologists (CAP) opposes this adjustment, arguing it inaccurately reflects the value of pathology and laboratory medicine and ignores the increasing complexity of medical practice.
December 2025—A 21-year-old male with a history of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) presented with symptoms suggestive of relapse. While standard tests like qRT-PCR and amplicon-based sequencing failed to detect the PML::RARA fusion, AMP NGS revealed an atypical bcr2 transcript with a novel breakpoint.
December 2025—A roundtable discussion on laboratory information systems (LIS) focused on the application of AI in lab workflows. Participants emphasized the need for AI to be used as a targeted tool to augment human work, highlighting its potential in streamlining documentation, coding, and data extraction.
December 2025—When this column comes out, it will be nearly the end of 2025. It’s a good time to think about the challenges we have been facing—and the opportunities we will have in the coming years to address them. The CAP is no stranger to challenges, and neither are its members. There’s a lot going on in the world and in the health care markets that directly affects what we do. I believe that if we face these challenges head-on, we can find ways to improve laboratory quality and our ability to care for patients, all while strengthening the CAP as an organization.
December 2025—The American Gastroenterological Association formalized, in 2020, iron-deficiency anemia recommendations for postmenopausal women and for men, which include esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy, or bidirectional endoscopy. This guideline only conditionally recommended that bidirectional endoscopy be performed on premenopausal women, who are more likely to have iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) due to menorrhagia. The association also advised revising the World Health Organization’s recommended iron-deficiency diagnostic threshold of 15 ng/mL or lower ferritin to 45 ng/mL or lower. The authors used population-representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to assess the role of these recommendations in IDA prevalence estimates and management in the United States.
