4 December 2019

International Pathology Day 2019 took place on 13 November and saw people all over the world get involved in pathology-related activities.

To mark International Pathology Day (IPD) 2019, the College once again hosted a one day conference, organised in partnership with The Pathologist magazine as well as Sonic Healthcare UK and Visiopharm to bring together a global audience in celebration of a shared passion for pathology. The theme of the event was Advances in Rapid and Point-of-Care Diagnostic Testing.

Professor Jo Martin, the College's President, introduced the day stressing the importance of IPD. Following National Pathology Week, Professor Martin stated that IPD is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the contribution and important role played by pathology and laboratory medicine services in addressing global health challenges and improving the health outcomes of communities around the world.

‘Part of the College strategy is to support members to deliver the best patient care. The programme importantly focused on academic and practical elements of delivering care around the world.’

The first half of the day was jam-packed with a range of talks. Tony Cambridge spoke about advances in rapid and point-of-care testing, while Dr Charles van Heyningen gave examples of developments in point-of-care testing across eastern and southern Africa. Annette Wilkinson and Glynn Parry spoke about self-collection, weighing up the advantages against the challenges and how this has changed their work in terms of sexual health screening. Finally, Professor Tahir Pillay spoke about new diagnostic probes for point-of-care testing. 

Judging of the poster competition started off the lunchtime activities, with judges Dr Rachael Liebmann, Lieutenant Colonel Emma Hutley and Dr Martin Young viewing the fabulous entries in to the competition themed 'Bench to Bench: from basic science to clinical care' that was sponsored by Sonic Healthcare UK. Congratulations to the winner, Rebecca Gorton.

Judges Dr Rachael Liebmann, Lieutenant Colonel Emma Hutley and Dr Martin viewing one of the poster competition entries at International Pathology Day 2019
Poster competition judging underway at International Pathology Day 2019.

Participants also received the opportunity to attend the lunchtime workshop sponsored by Visiopharm, the session focused on a day in the life of an augmented pathologist during which the pros and cons of artificial intelligence in healthcare, specifically pathology, were explored. It put artificial intelligence into the context of the everyday life of a pathologist, highlighting both the positive and negative impacts.  

Martin Kristensson, Senior Vice President of Visiopharm A/S leading the lunchtime workshop on A Day in the Life of an Augmented Pathologist.
Martin Kristensson, Senior Vice President of Visiopharm A/S leading the lunchtime workshop.

The afternoon featured a roundtable discussion on the theme ‘a question of quality.’ The discussion was streamed live as a webinar, in conjunction with The Pathologist. We are delighted that people from 47 different countries from around the globe were able to join us remotely to listen in on the discussion and contribute questions to the panel. The panel included some of the speakers from the morning, who were joined by Lieutenant Colonel Dr Emma Hutley, a Defence Consultant and Consultant Clinical Microbiologist, and Dr Wale Atoyebi, Consultant Haematologist, who is also Clinical Lead for the ARISE programme on behalf of the College.   

Watch the roundtable here

Around the World – What you did?

Many member and non-member events took place across the world to support IPD. We are very thankful to all those who organised and attended these events to help raise awareness of the importance of the pathology speciality and shared their experiences and inspiring stories with us.

Social Media

The hashtag #PathologyDay was used across all social media platforms to champion and celebrate the work of pathologists and laboratory medicine professionals all around the world. Here are just some of our favourite tweets:

See more of the many wonderful #PathologyDay tweets from around the world.

Thank you!

We’d like to thank everyone who got involved in the celebrations. To all the speakers, panellists, participants and organisers for the College’s event, and to all of you around the world who ran an event, posted on social media and helped to spread awareness. In addition, thanks to The Pathologist and sponsors Sonic Healthcare UK and Visiopharm.

We look forward to celebrating the next International Pathology Day with you!

Author(s)

International team

  • International team