Patrick Godbey, MD
February 2020—Regular readers of CAP TODAY know I believe that it is extremely important for CAP members to become politically active. The upcoming Pathologists Leadership Summit, which will take place May 2–5 in Washington, DC, will give you the opportunity to do so. If you haven’t registered already, I encourage you to consider attending this special event.
Dr. Godbey
The Pathologists Leadership Summit is new for the CAP. It is replacing our annual policy meeting focused on government advocacy. CAP leaders made this change to be able to provide attendees with even more benefit. The summit will combine our House of Delegates meeting with new educational courses on emerging and evolving technologies and, of course, the important policy and advocacy material. The event culminates in Hill Day, which offers CAP members an opportunity to meet their representatives, senators, and staffs on Capitol Hill.
In addition to being a great opportunity to network with other pathologists, the summit will provide you with actionable information to help you be a better and more effective leader for your laboratory and institution. Leaders have to anticipate changes needed in their practice—from new technologies to working closely with hospital administrators to implement or address regulatory and policy changes—and this event will give you the information and tools needed to do that. If you are not a leader in your lab now, the summit will help you develop the skills to become one in the future.
The event will begin with the House of Delegates meeting. You do not have to be a delegate to attend the House meeting; any member of the CAP is invited to attend. The meeting will cover a range of topics, including workload and workforce issues, that are relevant to all pathologists.
The next day’s program is focused on education, with discussions planned on such topics as state pathology societies, innovations in pathology, and evolving technologies, including digital pathology and artificial intelligence. You can also learn about strategic leadership issues like succession planning, risk management, and developing effective clinical collaborations. I have no doubt that attending these sessions will help you become a better pathologist and a better leader.
The final day of the summit will focus on the most pressing policy issues facing pathologists and includes advocacy training for those CAP members who sign up to meet their government representatives on Hill Day. Please do not be ambivalent about becoming politically active. If legislators don’t hear from pathologists about the issues that matter to us, they will not think a proposed bill or regulation is important to us or to our patients. We are the only people who can represent the pathologists’ perspective to our elected officials. And we are their constituents.
The more CAP members who participate in Hill Day, the louder our message and the greater the chance our voice will be heard. The CAP handles the logistics of setting up these meetings for you; all you have to do is show up and share your view with your representative, senator, and their staff. Invariably, CAP fellows who go through our advocacy training and take part in Hill Day say it was a valuable experience and they would do it again. Many do. In the best cases, these meetings have laid a foundation for productive, ongoing relationships between CAP members and their government representatives, giving pathologists an open and continuing channel of communication to engage on policy matters that affect our field.
The CAP is the only organization with a political action committee dedicated to looking out for the interests of pathologists and the patients we serve. We are uniquely equipped to engage elected officials in our federal government. Hill Day is one more chance to amplify the important viewpoints we have to offer, and I hope you will join us for this critical effort.
If you’re not convinced yet, bear in mind that the skills you will learn for Hill Day will also serve you well in your state capitals and with the members of your state legislatures. Advocacy is about communication and building relationships.
Finally, I’d like to thank and congratulate Kathryn Knight, MD, speaker of the House of Delegates, and Jon Myles, MD, chair of our Council on Government and Professional Affairs. They are two of the many people who have been instrumental in putting together our inaugural Pathologists Leadership Summit and the Hill Day event. Dr. Knight and Dr. Myles have done great work, and I am looking forward to seeing the results of their efforts.
Dr. Godbey welcomes communication from CAP members. Write to him at president@cap.org.