Dear ISUP members, I would like to give a brief update on different issues that we are working on.
Reference image database
This function is still under construction. A test version is up and running and we will soon start uploading images. I hope that I will be able to email instructions and links during the summer!
Society website
This work is linked to the reference image database, as we will need to construct a new database for login information. Thus, we will need to prepare the two projects together and this is one of the reasons why it takes a while.
International datasets (ICCR)
We have had a number of teleconferences with the ICCR secretariat and James Kench, John Srigley and myself. An expert panel has been formed for prostate biopsies, representing the four national societies that are involved. The work should be finished during this year.
ISUP meeting in Seattle 2016
As you know next year’s USCAP meeting will take place in Seattle. We now have an agreement with USCAP that ISUP will be allowed to host a meeting on Sunday afternoon. The preliminary topic for this is standardization of grading and staging but details may be modified. Hopefully this will be a very educational meeting that can help setting the gold standard for reporting.
USCAP companion meeting 2016
Steven Shen has replaced Hema Samaratunga as companion meeting convenor and will work together with Jesse McKenney with next year’s program. We will inform you as soon as we have settled the details.
ISUP Constitution and By-Laws Committee
As indicated at the AGM meeting in Boston, the ISUP Council has now appointed a committee that will oversee the constitution and by-laws of the Society. The last time our constitution was revised was in 2010 and this should be done regularly. As you may recall there was an electronic voting in 2010 and the proposed revision was almost unanimously endorsed by the members. This time we have decided to start by letting a committee look at different aspects of the society procedures. We have aimed to have a broad inclusion of members from both the executive committee and outside the council. The committee will be chaired by the President-Elect, Dr Cristina Magi-Galluzzi and have the following members:
• Cristina Magi-Galluzzi (chair)
• Lars Egevad • Hemamali Samaratunga
• Peter Humphrey
• James Kench
• Glen Kristiansen
• David Grignon
• John Eble
The strength with this group is that it is well-balanced between council members and members at large, between North America and other continents and a representation of the past and the future of the Executive. We also have a connection with USCAP through Dr Grignon who serves as chair of Finance and a member of the Executive Committee of USCAP and Dr Eble who is Editor-in-Chief of Modern Pathology, the journal of USCAP. The committee will look at how other companion societies have organized their work and the aim is to ensure that our society is transparent and inclusive. It may be a little early but I would already now like to wish you all a very pleasant summer filled with sunshine, adventures and probably some biopsies. Lars Egevad President of ISUP