- Stevon Burrell
CME courses at CAP25 and Understanding Biorepositories, coming up next on the PATH News Network Daily Edition.
This is the PATH News Network Daily Edition, powered by the College of American Pathologists. I'm Stevon Burrell. It's Thursday, August 21st, and here are the latest headlines.
Diagnosing lymphoma is challenging, partly because of the small amount of material. At CAP25, Mastering Needle-Based Diagnosis Best Practices for Lymph Nodes will give pathologists tools they need. Led by Dr. Magdalena Czader and Dr. Rohit Gulati of Indiana University, the session runs September 14th from 10:30 to noon Eastern. Attendees will learn best practices for core biopsy and ancillary studies while earning 1.5 CME credits. For full course details, visit the link in our show notes.
And in related CAP25 news. Health equity takes center stage at CAP25 with the Dauphinelle phenotype, a health equity issue. This red blood cell variation is common among people with African or Middle Eastern ancestry and often leads to incorrect diagnosis. Patients with the phenotype are often subjected to unnecessary testing and treatment. The session is co-sponsored by the American Society of Hematology, will cover practical steps for updating absolute neutrophil count ranges and strategies to reduce inequities in care. The course runs September 14th from 3 to 4 p.m. Eastern and offers one CME credit.
Nebraska Medicine's lab earned top marks in their latest CAP inspection, logging just .39% deficiencies compared to nearly 1% nationally. Dr. Scott Koepsell of the medical center credits strong preparation and expanded quality oversight for the results. Inspections ensure patients get the highest quality care, he added. The CAP has accepted the lab's corrective action plans, with staff set to join an inspection team next year to bring back new insights.
And finally, biorepositories fuel research in patient care. The CAP's Biorepository Accreditation Program sets the standards for these facilities that store biological samples. To learn more, Dr. Rebecca Obeng, chair of the CAP's Biorepository Accreditation Program Committee, offers her insights. For those unfamiliar, what is a biorepository and how is it critical to research and patient care?
- Dr. Rebecca Obeng
They store a variety of samples such as human, animal, microbial, plant, or other biological specimens. And they can come in the form of a whole organism, organs, tissues, blood, or body fluids. They're procured in many different forms so you can acquire them fresh. You can acquire them from some sort of preservation, even to acquire preservation, which is frozen. or through other means like formalin fixation, alcohol fixation. So they're very vital to researchers in terms of being able to move medicine forward. And all of this, you know, results from this research, you know, feed directly into medicine and the care of patients.
- Stevon Burrell
What is the Biorepository Accreditation Program?
- Dr. Rebecca Obeng
Yeah, so the College of American Pathologists Biorepository Accreditation Program was developed about 13 years ago. And that was based on pulling in best practices from a number of different established institutions, including the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories, or ISBIR, the National Cancer Institute here at the NIH, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as the College of American Pathologists' own laboratory. Many of the experts who were part of the initiating program also. help them advise ISBA on their gradation process that later on came out. So the biopositor gradation program has an added value in that it's really aligned with the CAP's LAP program. It's on the same cycle, two-year cycle. So if a particular institution has both the LAP and the biopositor, they can have it synced so that they have them all done at the same time.
- Stevon Burrell
What have been some significant achievements or accomplishments from the biorepository accreditation program?
- Dr. Rebecca Obeng
I think it's important to note that the biorepository program, biorepository accreditation program, was actually the first accreditation body for biorepositories, and it was established in 2012. And then ISBIR pulled out ISO 20387, which is the international equivalent for biorepositories in 2018. So, you know, I think that's a great accomplishment in its own right as a pioneer for this particular area. We have, in addition to the hundred or so that you mentioned we actually have international labs that we've occurred accredited and the first one was in Germany in 2023 I believe since then we've accredited three international biorepositories in Germany, in South Africa, and in Canada. The international interest for our biorepository program is actually growing.
- Stevon Burrell
And do you have any final thoughts for the listeners out there about biorepositories today?
- Dr. Rebecca Obeng
Yeah, I mean, I think it's important to recognize that it's really important. And it's sort of I would think of it as a benchmark for getting biological specimens for research, because a lot of biorepositories take pride in their collections, the samples that they have in place and the services that they provide. And so they do a very good job of maintaining records and ensuring that they are following best practices and credit guidelines in the institution.
- Stevon Burrell
That's all we have for today. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or Spotify. Subscribe on your favorite platform. Look for more news like this in our weekly newsletters, published every Tuesday and Thursday. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern with more CAP News. For The Daily Edition, I'm Stevon Burrell. Have a great day.