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Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year!
I am privileged to serve you as the President of the California Society of Pathologists for a two-year term that started in December at CSP’s 2023 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. I am joined in CSP leadership by Vice President Brent Larson, Secretary/Treasurer William Yong, Past President James Harris and several new members to the Board of Directors including Manju Aron, Steven D. DeMartini, Anne Marie Deucher, Emad Kaabipoor, and Sonam Prakash. The complete list of CSP board members can be viewed here.
Speaking of new... there are many new things taking place here at CSP that I am pleased to tell you about including this first edition of CSP’s monthly electronic newsletter.
We are excited to announce that Dr. Manju Aron will be serving as the new chair of the Education Committee, replacing long-time chair Balaram Puligandla. Dr. Aron is Director of Urologic Pathology at Keck School of Medicine at USC.
Secretary/Treasurer Dr. William Yong will serve as the chair of CSP’s Finance Committee and the Membership and Communications Committee. Dr. Yong is a neuropathologist and Professor at UC Irvine.
Dr. Anne Deucher will serve as chair of the newly reformed Advocacy and Practice Management Committee. Dr. Deucher is Professor of Hematopathology and Molecular Genetic Pathology at University of California, San Francisco, and also serves at the chair of the CLTAC committee.
With the recent retirement of CSP’s longtime Executive Director, Bob Achermann, we discovered it takes two people to replace him...CSP’s new Executive Director Dave Butler, who has been an association management professional for 20+ years, and Ryan Spencer, CSP’s new lobbyist, who has been working in public policy at the state level for 20 years, including three years as staff with the California Medical Association and several years in senior positions with multiple Speakers of the Assembly.
CSP also has new direction, resulting from two days of engaging discussions at our recent Board of Directors Planning Meeting. We are very excited to reorganize and reenergize CSP’s leadership and membership to advance this set of strategic priorities outlined below and elsewhere in this communication.
Annual Meeting
From the feedback we have received, the 2023 Annual Meeting in San Francisco November 28-December 2 was a great success with world class content and speakers.
With Dr. Aron’s leadership, we plan to improve the attendee experience at CSP’s 2024 Annual Meeting by reducing the meeting days, providing a single set registration price, and adding plenary sessions with keynote speakers.
Advocacy and Practice Management
CSP leaders will participate in CMA’s annual State Legislative Day in Sacramento on April 10th. We’ll provide first-hand accounts of our visits with legislators and staff on issues of importance to California pathologists.
The Advocacy and Practice Management committee is also working closely with CSP’s new lobbyist Ryan Spencer to draft legislation to address concerns among many California pathologists that the State does not allow remote interpretation of digital lab data, including digital slides. This State policy is in contrast to the federal CMS policy which does permit pathologists and other laboratory personnel to review digital laboratory data, digital results and digital images remotely, even after the pandemic emergency resolved.
We want to hear from you!
One of my goals as President is to really work hard at providing valuable, meaningful experiences for our members…together in fellowship with one another within our professional family that is the CSP. If you’d like to join a committee, help with the annual meeting, serve as a grassroots advocate or just have an idea….please contact me directly at president@calpath.org.
Emily Ann Green, MD
CSP President
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