From the President’s Desk: Keeping the truth

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November 2021—In the past two years we have seen the lethal effect of a lack of trust in science. As physicians, pathologists, and fellows of the College of American Pathologists, our duty now as always is to prevent harm, the threat of which comes from mistrust and misinformation.

Dr. Volk

It has always been our role to be revealers of truth, keepers of truth, and producers of clear, reliable information. Our profession and the entire CAP are based on the idea that there is a single truth that can be found through a laboratory value—a truth about a patient’s pathophysiology at a moment in time. This belief that there exist objective truths in medicine is fundamental. In fact, if the laboratory were not a reliable source of truthful information, then pathologists would have a much diminished role, if any at all, to play in clinical medicine.

With the truth, pathologists are incredibly important. Without it, much less so.

The founders of the CAP understood that. As I have been reviewing the final draft of the book about the CAP’s 75th anniversary—a book I hope you all get a chance to read—I am reminded about how important truth was in the decision to start a new organization for pathologists. The founders dedicated the CAP to improving the practice of pathology and to achieving laboratory excellence.

Three-quarters of a century later, our role as keepers of the truth is still the most important measure of a pathologist. From patients we elicit laboratory data that we can reproduce and that forms the foundation of healing. We are critical partners in therapy development and decision-making. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been essential in evaluating responses to a number of potential therapies, such as plasma therapy and monoclonal antibody therapy, as well as to vaccines.

And, of course, every day we generate the most accurate results possible about SARS-CoV-2 infections and the many biological values that must be monitored in hospitalized patients. This deadly pandemic has exhausted everybody—the general public, health care workers, and laboratory teams alike. In the midst of the most stressful long-term crisis many of us will ever experience, it can be difficult to think about our broader responsibility to fight misinformation and to engender trust in science.