CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
Emily E. Volk, MD
October 2021—I was born into the home of medicine. With a father who was an obstetrician/gynecologist and a mother who was a nurse, there was virtually no separation between our home and medical practice. And while I value how much medicine has shaped my life, I should probably note that my health-care–focused upbringing was little consolation to the parents of my third-grade classmates when I brought in a human placenta for show and tell and delivered some unwanted birds-and-bees education in the process.
Dr. Volk
While medicine has always felt like home to me, as a pathologist, the CAP has become my home as well. This organization has given me a sense of belonging and tremendous opportunity. The first CAP committee I served on was the Cytopathology Resource Committee. I had the privilege of attending the historic Bethesda meeting where we determined how Pap tests would be reported going forward. That system is still in place today.
Through the CAP, I have participated in Hill Day to advocate for pathologists with our elected officials in Washington; I have done the same with policymakers in state governments. Along with my CAP colleagues, I have screened women for breast and cervical cancer at See, Test & Treat events at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Recently, my CAP activities helped me stand out among other candidates and land a new job as chief medical officer at Baptist Health Floyd, a tertiary care hospital in southern Indiana.
Thanks to the CAP, I have developed large professional networks and lifelong friendships with pathologists from all over the world. (Those connections most recently led to an adjunct position at the University of Louisville as a cytopathologist, a role that nicely complements my CMO position.) I hope that all CAP fellows share this experience, and this feeling of having a professional home. Whether you practice clinical pathology or anatomic pathology, whether you practice in a hospital or an independent laboratory, whether you are a practice owner or an employee, the CAP is your home. Whatever your ancestry, your country of origin, your gender, this is your home. The CAP is where we can come to fill our cup, to keep us on mission, to connect us to our shared purpose as pathologists.