Transcription

• Elizabeth McMahon

  Coming up, navigating workloads in your lab and workforce challenges in your field. Did someone say AI? Plus, what those true crime shows get wrong about forensic pathologists. Hint, they're a dress-down kind of crowd. This and more next on the Path News Network. Welcome to the Path News Network Daily Edition, powered by the College of American Pathologists. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. It's Wednesday, September 10th, and here are the latest headlines. Whether you're new to the field or a seasoned professional, tremors in the job market have affected every age and stage of the pathology workforce. This Saturday at CAP25, join leaders from the House of Delegates and the Residens Forum for a candid discussion on pressing workforce issues, including job supply and demand, AI's impact on the field, and visa and immigration challenges. National experts including an immigration attorney, will host a Q&A and offer practical takeaways. Find out more in the show notes. AI: no other innovation holds more promise and potential pitfalls for clinical pathologists. As this rapidly evolving technology expands, so do questions about its application in the lab. Starting this weekend at CAP25, members can test and interact with seven AI models, explore curated patient cases. and replicate a lab workflow in a safe, secure AI studio. Don't miss the demos and discussions with your peers about their experiences using AI. Check the CAP25 event app for more information, and visit the AI studio and the CAP Innovation Hub at booth 325. Imbalance and inefficiency. Two words pathologists don't want to hear when they're managing a high-volume practice. Those challenges and more will be the focus of a November 18th webinar on workload distribution. You'll learn how to delineate duties, assess productivity, and manage balance, among other pressing issues. Experienced pathologists will share their stories and insights to help you manage a thriving, productive workplace. Find more on this two-hour, live-streamed webinar, including how to get CME credit, in the show notes. And finally, a new go-to textbook on forensic pathology. The Path News Network's Nancy Johnson spoke with Dr. Erin Brooks, co-editor and author of the book "Forensic Pathology, Principles and Pitfalls," to learn more about progress and popular misconceptions in the field.

• Nancy Johnson

  Your book covers the principles and pitfalls of forensic pathology. What do you most want people who work in this field to know?

• Dr. Erin Brooks

  I'd be most excited for them to know about this new reference. I think it's a pretty comprehensive reference for forensic pathology, and it covers a lot of the more niche topics that sometimes aren't covered in other texts. You know, topics like interactions with media and sports-related fatalities and aerospace fatalities, in addition to the more bread-and-butter entities that you often find in forensic textbooks. have a wide array of authors who are among some of the best known medical examiners we have in forensic pathology today. Some of them are sort of, you know, the old school forensic pathologists, and some of them are the new up and coming forensic pathologists. And so I think it's a nice mix. And then also, I think it's important to know that this textbook, we've really worked hard to make sure that it's evidence based. And so it's very well referenced and very well illustrated with numerous photographs as well. A textbook that can be used both by sort of a more novice person who's just kind of learning about forensic pathology, but also one that would be applicable for an experienced forensic pathologist to use as a reference.

• Nancy Johnson

  What would the most highly trained physicians who do autopsies every day not fully understand about death investigations?

• Dr. Erin Brooks

  Like any field of medicine, forensic pathology evolves. The thinking on certain topics changes and also the ancillary testing options that we have available to us change over time. So sometimes experienced pathologists may not be aware that, for instance, molecular testing offers the ability to get culture results. Even if one didn't culture an autopsy, one can still use molecular testing to help figure out particular infectious disease organisms. There's also new molecular testing profiles available for causes of sudden cardiac death and for causes of aortic dissection. So I think sometimes even experienced pathologists may not be aware of all the new up-and-coming technologies that are available that can help better sort out what is the cause of death and more importantly help sort out whether there's a possibility of genetic transmission of certain disease processes which can have very important implications for the family members of the decedent.

• Nancy Johnson

  There's so many true crime shows out there. What's the biggest misconception people have about this discipline of forensic pathology?

• Dr. Erin Brooks

  Well, one misconception would be that we probably dress better than we actually do and are maybe a little more young and attractive than some of us actually are. Another misconception would be that I think sometimes the shows give the false impression that answers can be obtained more rapidly than we're actually able to provide them. And maybe also that the information that we are able to provide is maybe a little more specific than is actually possible with the state of science we have today. They help popularize our specialty. And so that is a plus. But I think they can also lead to those misconceptions that we are able to give more specific answers than we actually can and also able to give those answers in a more rapid timeframe than we actually can.

• Elizabeth McMahon

  That wraps it up for today. Don't forget to check your inbox for more news like this in CAP's weekly edition every Thursday. We're back each morning at 5 a.m. Eastern with the daily edition. You can subscribe to this show on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. Have a great day, everyone.