3 February 2023: Weekly Roundup #111

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. USCAP 2023

Visit us next month at USCAP, Booth #112! We look forward to meeting you.

2. Mastodon Account / Social Media

Follow our PathologyOutlines.com account on Mastodon, a Twitter alternative, at med-mastodon.com/@pathout. The header on PathologyOutlines.com has icons for all of our social media accounts in the upper right corner, next to the Search box.

3. Curing Cancer Network: American Cancer Society – Updated Mission Statement

The American Cancer Society has updated its mission statement, which now reads as shown below:

“The mission of the American Cancer Society is to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.” See https://lnkd.in/gbKwWdS6.

The prior mission statement was “to save lives, celebrate lives, and lead the fight for a world without cancer.” 

While I don’t know the details regarding the change, I am pleased with this new, more rational mission statement that reflects that cancer is an inherent part of our biology that cannot be vanquished. I had previously criticized the phrase “world without cancer”:

“The human body is composed of a myriad of interacting networks positioned at critical states, which is required for network flexibility to enable embryonic development, the inflammatory response to trauma and infection and the capability for our species to evolve to a changing environment. However, the tradeoff for maintaining these critical states is that cancer, a type of catastrophic systemic failure, is inevitable. We can reduce its incidence, we can detect it earlier and we can treat it more effectively but attaining a “world without cancer” (American Cancer Society, accessed 13Nov20) is not possible.”

27 January 2023: Weekly Roundup #110

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Informatics

Learn about Informatics, digital & computational pathology at pathologyoutlines.com/informatics.html. View our Spectral imaging topic, recently written by Aisha Abdelhafez, M.Sc. and Anil Parwani, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A.

2. Top Topics of 2022

11 of our topics reached more than 100,000 views in 2022, a new record:

1. Basal cell carcinoma (143,028 views)
2. Endometrioid carcinoma (132,439)
3. Fibroadenoma (119,546)
4. Pleomorphic adenoma (112,332)
5. Leiomyoma-general (108,854)
6. Dermatofibroma (cutaneous fibrous histiocytoma) (108,488)
7. Meningioma (106,805)
8. Neurofibroma-general (104,319)
9. Invasive urothelial carcinoma (101,073)
10. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (100,269)
11. Schwannoma (100,175)

3. Top Countries

We now have posted visits by country in 2022 on our Statistics page. The top 10 countries by traffic are as follows:

1. United States (1,463,246 users)
2. Indonesia (795,776)
3. India (605,835)
4. United Kingdom (194,434)
5. Philippines (159,044)
6. Canada (116,659)
7. Nepal (109,367)
8. Australia (104,195)
9. Mexico (96,286)
10. Germany (95,852)

4. PubMed Links

We are making a small change to PubMed links. Currently, some are blue and others are green. While green links were for journal articles that were free full text for everyone, it turns out that this changes over time. Going forward, all new links created will be blue.

20 January 2023: Weekly Roundup #109

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists Ambassadors

Do you want to promote the pathologists at your institution? If so, consider becoming a Directory Ambassador! As Ambassador, you help ensure that the Directory includes all practicing pathologists for your institution and otherwise assist in making the Directory as accurate as possible. Ambassadors can be residents, fellows, faculty or staff, can split the work with other ambassadors and don’t have to review all the pathologists at the same time. Ambassadors are not paid but are listed on this page, get a gift at the time of the annual USCAP meeting and are appreciated by pathologists at their institution for helping promote their work.

2. Curing Cancer Network: How Cancer Kills

We have updated our essay, How Cancer Kills. See an excerpt below:

“Our strategic plan aims to reduce U.S. cancer deaths from 600,000 (projected cancer deaths in 2022) to 100,000 per year. To reach this ambitious goal, we must better understand how cancer actually kills people. This essay proposes that cancer often kills indirectly by promoting marked physiologic disruptions in life’s essential networks; however, physicians can prevent these deaths by correcting the network changes even before the cancer itself is treated. In addition, advanced cancer kills by creating a sense of futility, which causes individuals and the medical system to give up the fight.”

3. Screening Colonoscopies

Dr. Pernick appeared on Channel 7 (Detroit) discussing how patients with private insurance or Medicare should not be charged for screening colonoscopies under the Affordable Care Act. Watch the video and read the article here. His blog about his experience is here.

4. Website Traffic

For 2022, PathologyOutlines.com averaged 54,904 sessions (visits) per day, an increase of 10.9% over 2021. New traffic records for 2022 include 20,039,946 total sessions, 6,151,434 users, 4,299,793 home page views and an incredible 45,164,115 total page views. Thanks for your support and suggestions to improve the website.

Currently, statistics are obtained using Google Analytics 3, which is changing to Google Analytics 4 in July 2023. Most statistics will be comparable but some may change based solely on the methodology.

6 January 2023: Weekly Roundup #108

Happy New Year! Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Tip of the Month – December 2022

We have posted a YouTube video highlighting our blog features for the December 2022 edition of PathologyOutlines.com’s Tip of the Month. View it at https://youtu.be/WAJPS3yj94g.

2. Curing Cancer Network

We have posted our first essay to discuss details of our strategic plan to substantially reduce cancer deaths. Currently, cancer is the #2 cause of death in the United States after heart disease, causing about 600,000 deaths per year. This essay discusses cancer deaths in more detail. See pathologyoutlines.com/ccnblog/strategicplandiscussion.html for more information and click here to sign up for our Curing Cancer Network newsletter. You can also text CURINGCANCERNET (with no spaces) to 22828 to sign up.

3. Topic Updates

How can you determine the status of a topic that you think needs updating, whether it is written or pending? If the topic says “update in progress,” then it has been assigned. This may mean it has been “reserved” but the author is working on another topic first. We are trying to improve the turnaround times for topics, but let us know at comments@pathologyoutlines.com if you have any concerns about a particular topic.

4. New Address and Staff Update

We are moving to a smaller office in the next building later this month but are already starting to use our new mailing address of 30150 Telegraph Road, Suite 119, Bingham Farms, Michigan 48025.

We are also continuing to grow – our 24th staff member will start this month, and almost all staff members work remotely. Our team currently lives in 8 states (Michigan, Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New York, North Carolina and Oregon). Although there may be a benefit to having people in the office (more collaboration and exchange of ideas), most employees prefer to work from home and we don’t want to force them to drive to work.

16 December 2022: Weekly Roundup #107

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. What’s New in Neuromuscular Pathology 2022: Myopathy Updates and Gene Therapies

We have posted our most recent What’s New in Neuromuscular Pathology newsletter by Chunyu Cai, M.D., Ph.D. Make sure to read and subscribe to all our future What’s New in Pathology e-newsletters on our Newsletters page.

2. New Editorial Board Appointments

Dr. Xiaoyan Liao has been appointed to our Editorial Board for Gastrointestinal Pathology. Dr. Liao is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. She obtained her M.D. from Peking University Health Science Center in Beijing and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She then completed her Anatomic and Clinical Pathology residency at the University of California, San Diego. She subsequently completed a fellowship in Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology at Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

Dr. Mrigender Singh Virk has been appointed to the Editorial Board for Transfusion Medicine and Coagulation. In 2018, he completed his Transfusion Medicine fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, and joined the faculty soon after. Dr. Virk has been a leader for the division of Pediatric Transfusion Medicine and he oversees the operations at the children’s hospital. In addition, he is the Associate Director of the Transfusion Medicine Fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine and is heavily involved in resident & fellow education.

3. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists

What should pathologists know about you? If you are a U.S. or Canadian pathologist, the first Google search response may be your PathologyOutlines Directory profile. Consequently, you should make sure it is as complete and accurate as possible. To update, please fill out the survey at pathologyoutlines.com/directorychange.html.

2 December 2022: Weekly Roundup #106

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. WHO HAEM5 and ICC-B cell Topic

We have a great topic on the new HemePath classification systems, WHO HAEM5 and ICC-B cell, written by Pichayut Nithagon, M.D. and Patricia Tsang, M.D., M.B.A.

2. Curing Cancer Network

Dr. Pernick has updated his strategic plan to substantially reduce cancer deaths at pathologyoutlines.com/ccnstrategicplan.html. This is part of our Curing Cancer Network, which can be followed on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We offer grants of up to $25,000 for research directly related to our strategic plan. The next grant deadline is 15 January 2023. See pathologyoutlines.com/ccngrants.html for more information.

3. Contact Information Update

Will you be changing institutions, or has your contact information changed recently? If so, we can update your Directory profile, any E-blasts you are receiving and your author profile (if applicable). Email us at Directory@PathologyOutlines.com with your updated information and any old emails you are no longer using.

4. Copyright

Many of you want to share great images from our website; however, we usually own the copyrights to these images. Unless you are the contributor, be aware of limitations in your use. For more information, please see pathologyoutlines.com/copyrightinfo.html and https://pathologyoutlinesblog.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/11-november-2022-weekly-roundup-104/. 

While you can post images from our website for educational purposes to social media, you should also post a link to the source. This is the polite thing to do and also acknowledges who contributed the image as well as provides background information about the disease entity in the image. In general, you cannot post images from our website onto other websites.

18 November 2022: Weekly Roundup #105

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Stains and CD Markers

Adele has a great hit, ‘Rolling in the Deep‘, in which she sings, “We could have had it all”. But that is not true; life is about tradeoffs and we have to make the best deals or compromises that we can.

In that spirit, we are trimming the Stains & CD markers page to focus on those that are most popular or otherwise considered by our editors to be most important. We have removed some of the obscure / low traffic stains and we are no longer planning to update all CD markers. We have also put the low traffic / less important ones under CD markers – other, but we will not be updating them unless one of them becomes important.

Contact Nat@PathologyOutlines.com with any comments or questions.

2. Directory Image Contest

The Favorite Directory Image contest deadline has been extended to November 30, 2022. Visit pathologyoutlines.com/directorysignup.html to add a profile with your favorite image or pathologyoutlines.com/directorychange.html to add / change your favorite image on your existing profile.

The 3 winners will get gift cards of $250, $150 and $100 respectively and will be publicized on our website. Click here for more information.

Email Amal@PathologyOutlines.com with any questions. 

3. Website Header

We have rearranged our website’s headers to put the most important pages on the top line, which remains fixed as you scroll down.

11 November 2022: Weekly Roundup #104

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Copyright and Images

We welcome authors to submit original images that they own for posting to the topics they write; however, we want to remind you that you cannot claim images from other publications as your own for our textbook because this is a copyright violation. Those who use images they don’t own are breaking the law and are subject to criminal and civil penalties. If you have questions, contact Nat@PathologyOutlines.com.

2. Website Improvements

We are continuously working on improving our website and apologize for some slowdowns last month. We appreciate your support and always welcome any suggestions on how to make the website better. Make sure to use the Comment button at the top of any page to leave us comments or questions.

3. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists

We have now added profiles for all known U.S. and Canadian academic pathologists. Currently, we are adding nonacademic pathologists and then will work on other countries. Of course, pathologists everywhere are welcome to add their own profiles by completing a short survey (see the blue box at pathologyoutlines.com/directory for details).

Which U.S. and Canadian institutions have the most pathologists? The top 5 institutions are Harvard Medical School, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, Mayo Clinic and AmeriPath. You can see our current totals on our Directory page at pathologyoutlines.com/directory under the heading Directory totals by institution (31 October 2022): descending, alphabetical.

4 November 2022: Weekly Roundup #103

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Tip of the Month – November 2022

We have posted a YouTube video highlighting our website features for the November 2022 PathologyOutlines.com Tip of the Month. View it at https://youtu.be/3bJ2gL0N7xs.

2. Curing Cancer Network E-Newsletter

We have posted our most recent Curing Cancer Network (CCN) e-newsletter. Make sure to subscribe to all of our future CCN e-newsletters on our website. You can also text CURINGCANCERNET (no spaces, case insensitive) to 22828 to sign up. It will then ask you for your email address.

3. What’s New in Soft Tissue and Bone Pathology: WHO 5th Edition Updates

We have posted our most recent What’s New in Soft Tissue and Bone Pathology e-newsletter by Erica Kao, M.D. and Jose G. Mantilla, M.D. Make sure to subscribe to all of our future What’s New in Pathology e-newsletters on our website.

4. Pathology Jobs

We made some improvements to our Jobs page:

• The page now hides U.S. states, Canadian provinces, countries and subspecialties with no job ads.
• The Jobs graph has been moved up on the page and now covers up to 7 years.
• The subspecialty map is initially hidden (to take up less space) but can be opened by clicking on the arrow next to Totals, All Subspecialties.
• For database searches, to clear a section, click the Clear Selection button.

5. Pathology Books

Have you written a new book or a new edition of an existing book? Check out our Books page at pathologyoutlines.com/books and make sure your book is listed. We will post it for no charge if it is available through Amazon. Otherwise, the charge is $300 for 5 years. Email ads@pathologyoutlines.com to let us know if you would like your book posted.

21 October 2022: Weekly Roundup #102

Here’s what you need to know about PathologyOutlines.com this week:

1. Favorite Directory Image Contest

The Favorite Directory Image Contest deadline has been extended to November 30, 2022. Visit pathologyoutlines.com/directory to add or change your profile (review the blue box for specific instructions). 

2. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists

Now that our Directory at pathologyoutlines.com/directory contains almost all academic pathologists in the U.S. and Canada, we plan to link any references to these pathologists to their Directory profile, except when they are authors or editors for our textbook. We also suggest that these pathologists use their profile links in their own personal communications.

3. CD Markers

Our initial goal for CD markers was to have a complete list and to even include those that are quite obscure. Do you think we should include CD markers not particularly useful for pathologists? Email Nat@PathologyOutlines.com or comment on our blog if you have any input.

4. Board Review Style Questions

Currently, we have 2,700+ board review style questions, sorted by subspecialty and chapter, at pathologyoutlines.com/review-questions. More are added regularly from our textbook topics. We plan to license some of these questions to the American Board of Pathology for their CertLink program; we will let you know when this starts. We are also asking authors to give more detailed answers indicating why one selection is correct and the other selections are incorrect.

In addition, we are planning to start a free, individual self study module in 2023 that will track the questions you have answered and your results. This will require a personal password to access. More details will follow.