- Nancy Johnson
One medical student's path to pathology is earning national recognition, and coming up, you'll hear from the award winner and the mentor who nominated him.
- Dr. Erin Brooks
Of course, any time a med student expresses interest in pathology right away, I get very excited about it.
- Nancy Johnson
And this Memorial Day, we remember the words of a pathologist, veteran, and poet behind one of the most widely quoted poems in military history. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Monday, May 25th. People with some forms of terminal cancer are now living far longer than doctors once thought possible thanks to newer treatments like immunotherapy. A report in the New York Times says some advanced cancers are increasingly being treated more like chronic diseases that that patients may live with for years. Doctors say medicine has become better at extending life, but the healthcare system is still learning how to help patients navigate the emotional uncertainty of being neither cured nor actively dying. A study published in the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology says many labs are still relying on spreadsheets like Excel you to analyze complex blood and lab data, even though those tools can make mistakes harder to catch. Researcher Amron E. Obstfeld says using R, a widely used programming language for statistical analysis, is more like following a written recipe, where every step is documented and can be repeated exactly the same way. By comparison, spreadsheet-based analysis can involve a lot of manual clicking, copying, and pasting that may leave little record of how the results were produced. The study says script-based systems could improve accuracy, transparency, and patient safety in laboratory medicine. A future pathologist at the University of Wisconsin is being recognized nationally. by the College of American Pathologists. Dr. Neil Biswas is one of 84 medical students from 84 institutions receiving the CAP's Distinguished Medical Student Award for Outstanding Achievement and Interest in Pathology. Dr. Biswas says the recognition was especially meaningful because medical school wasn't always easy.
- Dr. Neil Biswas
I had a few struggles in medical school. You know, I experienced some difficulty. So it does mean a lot to receive this type of award and be nominated. It was kind of a surprise to me. You know, it was not something that I was told about like ahead of time. But Dr. Brooks let me know that the department decided to nominate me and it just meant a lot to have, you know, the department behind me.
- Nancy Johnson
Dr. Biswas says his pathology rotations at UW also changed the way he viewed the specialty.
- Dr. Neil Biswas
A lot of people think that pathology is done in a vacuum. It's a very isolated field, but... I saw that there was actually a lot of collaboration in a lot of areas that I maybe hadn't even considered within pathology, like blood banking, transfusion medicine. So I think I knew that I wanted to do pathology and I would be comfortable finding a niche within it.
- Nancy Johnson
Dr. Erin Brooks at the University of Wisconsin Health in Madison nominated Dr. Biswas after he rotated through her pathology department during medical school. She says his curiosity about the specialty stood out right away.
- Dr. Erin Brooks
He worked on an abstract with me. We submitted it to a conference. He got to present that abstract at the conference. He just really seemed interested, enthusiastic, and engaged in pathology in a way that many students rotate through our department. And they're interested in pathology, but only insofar as it pertains to the field that they're going into. And so Neil was interested in pathology broadly.
- Nancy Johnson
After graduating from medical school, Dr. Biswas is now returning to the University of Wisconsin to continue his training as a pathology resident. The CAP will release the full list of Distinguished Medical Student Award winners on June 16th. And finally, on this Memorial Day, in Flanders Fields, the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row, that mark our place. And in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly scarce, heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved. And now we lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe. To you from failing hands we throw the torch. Be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields. Those famous words were written in 1915 by Canadian pathologist and military physician Dr. John McCrae after the death of a close friend during World War I. Dr. McCrae treated wounded soldiers on the front lines and later became one of the war's most remembered voices through the poem In Flanders Fields. He died in 1918 from pneumonia and meningitis while still serving overseas during the war. That does it for the Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Also, share this newscast with your social media network. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Thank you for joining us.