Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss how to integrate Kappa and Lambda in situ hybridization testing into your standard hematopathology workflow to accurately assess B-cell and plasma cell clonality. You will also gain the skills to recognize testing pitfalls in challenging reactive versus neoplastic proliferations and apply ancillary tools to resolve complex cases.
Webinar presenter Xiaojun Wu, MD, PhD, Assistant professor, Director of Hematopathology Section at NCR of Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Pathology, SOM at Johns Hopkins University
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 11:00-11:30 AM CT
Roundtable presenters Nick Fingland, PhD, PMP, Senior Director, R&D Operations and Science, BD, and Chris Farnsworth, PhD, D(ABCC), Section Head of Clinical Chemistry, Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine.
Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY
June 2026—The blood bank community, state pathology societies, and the CAP and Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies are working to oppose state bills that mandate directed and autologous blood donations. Most such proposals have failed, but Idaho’s law was enacted on March 16. It will go into effect July 1.
November 2025—The FDA cleared Roche’s Elecsys pTau181 test, a blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease assessment in patients 55 and older. The CAP requested an exception for physician J-1 visa holders, concerned the proposed four-year visa limit could hinder international medical graduates pursuing pathology careers. The Association for Molecular Pathology and CAP published a consensus recommendation for a simplified next-generation sequencing molecular biomarker report template.
October 2025—Send-out and other high-cost tests are the typical targets of lab stewardship, but a clinical decision support session at the ADLM meeting in July had a different focus: daily labs. It’s generally believed there is little to no opportunity for savings on daily labs because the reagent cost per test is low, as is the incremental labor savings for tests performed on automated instruments. Instead, said Grace Mahowald, MD, PhD, informatician and director of the core laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, “think about what goes into the cost of each of our daily lab tests,” from the nurse, patient care assistant, and phlebotomist to the specimen transporter and the lab receiving staff and technical staff who review results and call providers when specimens have to be refused at receipt. “And it’s questionable if people are even looking at the result,” she said.
September 2025—CAP president Donald Karcher, MD, in a July 25 letter urged the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies to apply pressure to obligate and award already approved funding for the CDC Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. “Even though Congress approved FY 2025 funding in March, the CDC has not issued notice of awards to provide funding to state and local health departments for the remaining FY 2025 funds,” he said. “State and local health departments are challenged to continue their work without knowing if they will be reimbursed. State health departments and grantees are on the verge of shutting down programs and furloughing staff.”
August 2025—In a position statement released in July, the CAP urged policymakers to consider scientific and logistical evidence and to protect the integrity and safety of the national blood supply. The statement was issued in response to legislation proposed in several states that would require blood product labeling based on donor vaccination status or mandate hospitals and blood collectors to honor requests for directed and autologous donations. Misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and mRNA vaccines has led to a growing number of patient requests for blood transfusions exclusively from unvaccinated donors.
July 2025—The length of time to install digital pathology equipment, interface, implement, train, and go live in 10 large laboratories ranged from under one year to about 18 months, and the time spent prior to that—evaluating options, gaining budget approval, making decisions, and completing the contract and negotiation process—took eight months to a year for seven of the 10. For two others, the evaluation, decision-making, and contracting process took about 18 months, and for one it took five years, largely owing to pandemic-related delay.
June 2025—A Labcorp survey of more than 100 genetic counselors, including 15 hours of one-one-one conversations, found their three pain points to be balancing patient care and administrative demands, the financial difficulties that complex genetic testing presents, and staying on top of scientific and technologic advances in genetics. Of the time constraints, one genetic counselor at a large health system said, “Anything a lab partner can do, from making their portal easier to get reports or having easy access to someone on their end to help me with some questions, all that gives me more time with the patient.”
May 2025—Ninety-nine percent of laboratory professionals say medical couriers impact their work in a “typical week,” with 81 percent of respondents who work in acute care labs indicating the impact is “significant,” according to a CAP TODAY survey sponsored by MedSpeed. Of the 318 laboratory professionals who responded to the 2025 CAP TODAY survey, 84 percent said that in the last month a medical courier delay or error impacted their ability to provide appropriate and timely results for patients, with an average of three such incidents reported per month per respondent. Fifty-six percent of laboratory directors, managers, and supervisors indicated that a courier error compromised an irreplaceable specimen in the last year, with an average of two such incidents reported per respondent per year. And 83 percent of laboratory directors, managers, and supervisors said courier reliability affects their decision to partner with specialty labs or complementary labs for send-out and referral testing.
April 2025—The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled on March 31 in favor of the laboratory plaintiffs in the two consolidated cases challenging the validity of the Food and Drug Administration’s final rule on laboratory-developed tests. The plaintiffs in the cases were the American Clinical Laboratory Association, Association for Molecular Pathology, HealthTrackRX and HealthTrackRX Indiana, and pathologist Michael Laposata, MD. The ruling by Judge Sean D. Jordan ordered that the plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment be granted. The final rule that would have regulated LDTs as medical devices under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act was vacated.
March 2025—The Roche Tina-quant Lipoprotein (a) Gen.2 Molarity assay received 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration. It is the first 510(k)-cleared test of its kind available in the U.S. to measure lipoprotein(a) in nanomoles per liter. It will be broadly available on Cobas c analyzers. Lp(a) can vary in size and has no single, defined molecular weight. For this reason, Roche says, there is a consensus in the scientific community that Lp(a) levels should be measured in terms of the number of particles per liter of blood (nmol/L), rather than mass units (mg/dL), and that any conversion between mass and molar units is generally imprecise and unreliable. By using molar units, laboratory professionals and clinicians know the Lp(a) measurements reflect the number of particles rather than a difference in particle size.
