Futurescape of Pathology 2008 Conference: Welcome and Introductory Comments
Mary E. Kass · Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine · 2009
Good morning, I am Mary Kass, president of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Foundation, and on behalf of the Board of Directors and the Planning Committee, I would like to welcome you to the second Futurescape of Pathology Conference. We are extremely happy to have so many of you with us this weekend. I do not know if you feel it yet, but there is a lot of excitement in the air and a lot of energy in this room because this forum is designed to facilitate dialogue between the decision makers in pathology, business, technology, and the financial industries. The Planning Committee has worked very hard to bring you what I think is an excellent program.What does the future of pathology look like in an era of personalized medicine? How will personalized medicine impact the way we practice in the next 3 to 5 to 10 years? What is really going on with the biomarker race? What is industry's role in the emergence of this new pathology? And what practical tools can you take away from this conference that will benefit you in your practice? These questions and more will be answered here this weekend. You're going to hear some very exciting, but provoking, information. We hope that you will get involved in the discussion.Before I go any further, I would be remiss if I did not stop and thank the people that put this program together. They worked very hard to bring this program to you. The members of that committee were Dr Harry Zemel (Chair) and Drs Richard Friedberg, Bruce Beckwith, Keith Kaplan, Jay Schamberg, and Mr Marvin Kogan. I want to thank you all.I also want to extend a special thanks to members of the staff, without whom, as those of you who are involved in the CAP know, we could not have gotten anywhere. They kept us in line, they kept minutes for us, they kept us on point, and they made sure we did it. I would like to thank Linda Caradine, the new executive director of the CAP Foundation; Noel Adachi; Bob McGonnagle; and Diana Kelker. I would like to thank the industry sponsors that have helped us offset the cost of this conference. First of all, I would like to thank our platinum sponsor, Sunquest Information Systems (Tucson, Arizona); our gold sponsor, Hologic, Inc (Bedford, Massachusetts); our silver sponsors, Aperio (Vista, California), BioImagene, Inc (Cupertino, California), and Sakura Finetek USA (Torrance, California); and our conference sponsor, Cerner Corporation (Kansas City, Missouri). We would also like to thank BioImagene for underwriting last night's reception. We have a lot of exhibitors participating, and we are grateful for their support. I hope you will take the time to visit them, to talk to them, and to demonstrate your interest. Finally, thanks to the Cerner Corporation for underwriting today's lunch, to which you are all invited.With those few introductory remarks, let us get into the program. Since 2007, the Futurescape of Pathology Conference Series has brought together leading thinkers and practitioners to exchange views on the most pressing issues that are facing our specialty.Although our first speaker is not shy when it comes to challenging the status quo of the health care system, Jason Hwang, MD, MBA, is an internal medicine physician who was a Harvard Business School fellow at Innosight, a consulting firm in Watertown, Massachusetts. In 2006, he was awarded an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is coauthor of the book The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Healthcare,1 a book that offers the other half of the equation: how to innovate, to reduce costs, and to improve the quality and to accessibility of care.Much of today's dialogue on health care reform centers on how to pay for the cost of health care in the future. Dr. Hwang's talk will describe how the problems facing health care are not unique, and the same forces that create affordability and convenience in other industries can play a role in transforming health care. He explains that although politicians are consumed with how the nation can afford health care, the often overshadowed question is how we can make it affordable.Pathologists are poised to participate in this great transformation that is taking place. Many of the speakers will point out that all of these various elements that are coming together to make this transformation a reality are all areas that pathologists can own. We only need to reach out, learn them, and incorporate them into what we do.Next year's conference will be held on June 12–14, 2009, in Rosemont, Illinois. We look forward to seeing you there.