The uncertain and evolving COVID landscape continues to make a significant impact on our professional and family lives. I am, however, certain that we will rise again to any challenges that come our way and dig even deeper into our personal reserves and capacity to adapt.
A particular certainty in 2022 is of course the College’s Diamond Jubilee and this is our opportunity to recognise and celebrate achievements across all our pathology specialties. I am certainly keen that we do so over the whole year within our four Bulletin editions with therefore a somewhat different feel to the standard format.
Our exceptional strength lies in the people across pathology constantly striving in their efforts towards high-quality service delivery and innovation and yet finding the time to educate and engage others to ensure the next generation of expertise. So, we start off the year highlighting the contributions of just some of these people with profiles of colleagues from either a medical (e.g. Dr Suzy Lishman, Professor Jo Martin, Professor Cheng-Hock Toh and Professor Sharon Peacock) or scientific (David Wells and Dr Stephen Thomas) background, including consultants and trainees (Dr Matt Clarke). I greatly enjoyed reading all the profiles with some surprising insights into experience and personal journeys that our contributors were willing to share with us. I was particularly touched by Professor Kathreena Kurian’s emotive account that may strike a particular chord with the experience of some colleagues.
I am delighted that Elliot Colburn MP agreed to write the introduction to our initial tranche of diverse profiles. He recognises not just individual effort, but also the collective input of all of those working so hard across pathology and the College’s role in supporting them. Further investment needs are highlighted for pathology services to continue with their essential function in recovery from COVID-19 and tackling the healthcare backlog.
The Diamond Jubilee year is certainly an appropriate time to look back through the history of the College, from its founding in 1962 with royal patronage and visits. Registrar Dr Lance Sandle and Past President Professor Sir James Underwood help remind us of the College’s core mission and its charitable aims (p 552).
It is timely too to focus on maternal deaths and the contribution of pathologists over the past 70 years with Professor Sebastian Lucas and colleagues providing a professional and useful personal overview of experience including confidential enquiries (p 564). Ongoing events, including the experience of mothers affected by COVID, emphasise the need for continued attention on this particular group.
Professor Mark Arends throws the spotlight on a previous Cancer Research UK research workshop and we have profiles from researchers (Dr Daniel Royston and Dr Marnix Jansen) who were part of teams that secured funding for the development of novel technologies in cancer diagnosis (p 560).
We will certainly aim to profile further medical and scientist trainees in the April Bulletin, together with various initiatives supporting training and educational needs. In this issue, we emphasise the ongoing hard work of the Learning Directorate and relevant working groups who launched seven new curricula in 2021 following four years of development (p 556).
The College has an active Lay Network with at least three trustees and six others supporting core College activities. The College’s 2020–2021 annual report includes a review of their contribution. One of the lay advisors Rebecca Mussell contributes to this issue, using her particular expertise to highlight the importance of ethics in medicine with tips on how ethical issues should be identified and approached (p 557).
International Pathology Day 2021 focused on the important topic of digital pathology and artificial intelligence with significant implementation challenges but with scope for collaboration (p 582). We continue with our efforts to share our subject more widely through National Pathology Week (p 571). There were some amazing entries for the Art of Pathology competition, including the cover image selected for this edition because of its emphasis on how our pathology community across the UK and indeed internationally works together. There will be great opportunities to join in with our programme of events and activities (p 569) throughout the College’s Diamond Jubilee in 2022, so please do get involved.
I end by wishing you all the best for 2022. I look forward to your articles and contributions celebrating people and achievements within all our pathology specialties throughout the course of the year.
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