Stockholm 8 December 2015
Dear ISUP member,
We are pleased to announce that a new ISUP website has been launched. We hope that it will enhance the benefit of being a member of the Society and that it will be useful in your practice. This letter describes the functions of this website and will walk you through its different parts. A separate email will be sent about another website, the Imagebase, also available now for ISUP members.
The ISUP website is located at www.isupweb.org. For technical reasons we had to replace the old web address of the Society. You will be automatically re-directed to the new website if you use the old address.
As the new website gives access to several new functions, we have generated new individual logins. You will receive a separate email with your new login (username + password). You can also log in using your email address as username. If you have forgotten your password, there is a Forgot password button that will send you an email for resetting of the password. Once you have logged in you can also change your password to something that is easier to remember. This is done by clicking Edit profile and then Change password. On Edit profile you can now also update your contact details, e.g. change or add an email address.
In the grey field in the middle there is a general text about ISUP and an Apply for membership button for new members. Automatic dues reminders will from now be sent out when your dues expire. A new function that we plan to set up is to allow you to see the remaining time of your membership, i.e. when your dues will expire.
To pay your dues when they have expired, log in to the website, click Edit profile and go to Pay Membership.
In the center of the webpage you have four major headings: Imagebase, Case of the month, Upcoming events and News.
Imagebase: This will lead you to the start page of the new ISUP reference image database, Imagebase. More information about this will follow in a separate email. It is a novel function that we hope will become a useful instrument for standardization of uropathology. Consensus cases that have been approved by panels of international experts can be accessed by ISUP members. For the moment only prostate cases have reached consensus but projects on bladder and kidney are rapidly progressing and will soon be available. You can also get access to Imagebase by clicking on its tab at the top of the page. This is a convenient way to toggle between Imagebase and the ISUP website.
Case of the month: This page will be password protected and thus available to members only. A few cases have already been uploaded but there is now a panel of 25 pathologists from different countries who will contribute with cases on a regular basis. There will be a group supervising this function including Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, Mahul Amin and myself. We will start with a format that is rather similar to that of the previous website. However, you can now choose if you want to guess the diagnosis by a quiz or if you want to see the correct diagnosis at once. We have decided to have a mix of educational cases and rare cases at an approximate ratio of 3:1. We plan to add an index so you can search for a diagnosis under each of the major GU organs. We might add an option to look at digitized slides later on but this is slightly more complicated to set up and many colleagues are too busy to have time to look at them.
Upcoming events: Here you will find lists of upcoming meetings, courses and other events. In the beginning of this page there is a summary of where future meetings will be held. It will hopefully be helpful to have these collected in one place. Further down there will be more detailed information about the next few upcoming meetings. If anyone has information on such major meetings we will be happy to add this. We may not be able to publish information on local meetings and courses organized by individual pathologists as this would mean a lot of work for us. Information about such events are often more suitable for national or regional websites. You may submit such information to us but it is up to ISUP to determine how much general interest it will have. We hope for your understanding. Information about meetings that have already taken place will be moved to a Past meetings heading.
News: Here we will add information of general interest, mainly upcoming ISUP activities but also international guidelines and consensus statements.
In the black field at the bottom there is also a more extensive menu where you can see the structure of the website. To return to start, just click on ISUP home at the top (or the ISUP logo).
The Society: All information about ISUP is collected here, including historical information and society proceedings.
History: The historical background is given and past Officers are listed.
Constitution and by-laws: The current version is shown in plain text.
Awards and honors: The awards and honors of ISUP are described and all previous recipients that we have been able to find in our files have been listed.
Letters: All letters that are sent out to the membership will be made available here prospectively.
Agendas and minutes: We have collected all AGM minutes that we had available (back to 2005). Agendas of AGM meetings will be posted prospectively.
Council members: Presentation and contact details for all members of the ISUP Executive Committee and Council.
Member directory: Here you have access to the email addresses of all ISUP members. This page will not be available for non-members. We intend to add search functions in the future but at present the members are simply listed in alphabetical order. The member directory used to be maintained both as an excel file updated by the Treasurer for keeping track of the dues and as an on-line directory on the website. All of this is now integrated and will be automatically connected to the dues payment system.
Membership: We will have several new functions such as automatic reminders to pay dues and automatic counter for number of years of resident membership.
Links: Collection of useful links in urological pathology. Will be continuously updated.
The maintenance of the website will from now mainly be done by the new webmaster of ISUP, Anil Parwani, Anil.Parwani@osumc.edu.
Best regards,
Lars Egevad
President of ISUP