Transcription

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  Potential relief on the H-1B visa fee, a big drop in the use of model organisms for research, and preparing for next month's Hill Day. These stories and more are coming up next. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nick Lonnie. It's Tuesday, March 24th. A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week would exempt foreign-trained health care workers from the $100,000 H-1B visa fee established by presidential order last year. The H-1B visa allows foreign professionals with specialized skills, such as engineering, IT, or health care, to work in the U.S. for up to six years. medical groups, including the CAP, have argued that the U.S. health care system needs to employ foreign doctors and other highly trained health care workers because of a persistent shortage of qualified professionals. The CAP previously asked the administration to exempt pathologists from the fee and is working to ensure that the legislation includes pathologists in the waiver. 20th century biologists relied heavily on so-called model organisms such as fruit flies and zebrafish. to expand basic knowledge about biological function. Model organisms are relatively simple, have some similarity to human biology, and can be easily reproduced in labs. But a recent study described in Science found that the use of model organisms has declined sharply in this century. One reason is the rise in applied research focused on diseases, often using mice, versus basic research about biological mechanisms. The study's authors warned that the declining use of model organisms could jeopardize funding to maintain their easy availability, as well as for important resources such as specimen repositories. The CAP is urging the National Institutes of Health to clarify proposed policy changes affecting access to genomic and health data. While the CAP supports data protection, Many details of the proposed rules are unclear, for example, whether they apply only to NIH-funded research. The CAP expressed concern that the changes could slow research that relies on pathology archives and urged NIH to refine the policy to allow flexibility for non-genomic data and avoid limits that impede research. And finally, the CAP is already preparing for its annual Hill Day. part of the House of Delegates Pathologist Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., April 25th to the 28th. Once a year, CAP members from across the country visit their representatives in Congress to advocate for issues important to pathologists. While the CAP advocates year-round for its priorities, there's no substitute for lawmakers hearing directly about the impact of their policies from their own constituents. Last year, 138 CAP members held 170 meetings with members of Congress, and 35 pathologists made their first ever visits to the Hill. One of them was Dr. Eduardo Benzi from Miami. He told us his approach to meeting members of Congress.

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  The friendliest way possible, tell them what we need, tell them what we offer as pathologists, and how they can help us to provide better care for our patients, because at the end of the day... That's the only thing that matters.

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  The CAP will hold a Hill Day webinar this Wednesday afternoon to get a sneak peek at the issues and how to prepare. And that's it for today. For more information on today's stories, please see the show notes. And check your inbox for more news like this in the CAP's Advocacy Newsletter every Tuesday and our Weekly Edition Newsletter on Thursdays. We'll be back Wednesday at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nick Lani. Have a wonderful day.