16 September 2022: Weekly Roundup #99

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

1. Directory Ambassadors

Spread the word about the great Pathologists at your institution by becoming a Directory Ambassador. We have many Ambassadors but need more (see here for the current list; OPEN means we need someone). Email Directory@PathologyOutlines.com if interested or for any questions.

Ambassadors ensure that the Directory includes all practicing pathologists for their institution (unless they opt out), tell us when pathologists come and go, and otherwise assist in making the Directory as accurate as possible. They could be residents, fellows, faculty or staff. While Ambassadors are not paid, they are listed on the Directory’s Ambassador page, get a gift at the time of the annual USCAP meeting and are appreciated by pathologists worldwide for helping make the Directory more useful to everyone.

2. Directory Contest

Submit your favorite image for our Directory Image Contest by 30 September 2022. See here for more details.

3. Topic Navigation

Did you know every topic has a Table of Contents at the top of the page to help you navigate quickly? You can also right click on any item in the Table of Contents, then “Open in a new tab” to get a unique link to the section of the topic you are interested in.

4. Website Comments

We welcome your comments; we are always trying to improve. Click on the Comments tab in the Header or Footer and let us know what you think about the page you’re visiting. We appreciate hearing from you.

2 September 2022: Weekly Roundup #98

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

1. Pathology Crossword Puzzle

We have published a second pathology crossword puzzle, available at pathologyoutlines.com/crossword.html.

2. New Editorial Board Appointment for Gastrointestinal Pathology

Dr. Claudio Luchini was appointed to our Editorial Board for Gastrointestinal Pathology. Dr. Luchini is an Associate Professor of Pathology at University of Verona in Italy. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Verona. In 2014, he attended the Indiana University School of Medicine as a research scholar. Then, in 2014 – 2015, he completed a research fellowship in Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Pathology at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He has co-authored more than 200 scientific publications and contributions, mainly regarding gastrointestinal and pancreatic neoplasms.

3. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists

We now have 10,000 Directory profiles – do we have yours?

To check if you have a profile, visit pathologyoutlines.com/directory.

To add your profile, visit pathologyoutlines.com/directorysignup.html.

To edit your profile, visit pathologyoutlines.com/directorychange.html.

4. Cookies / Tracking

Our mission at PathologyOutlines.com is to serve the Pathology community and provide services that Pathologists like and find useful. Even though our sole revenue is from advertising, we are not focused on catering to marketing companies. Because of this, we do not publish expandable ads or ads that cannot be removed. We do not require registration and do not collect any personal information about users. We track website page views and banner clicks only, necessary for our ads to sell.

Consistent with our business model and ethics, we are working on eliminating Google tracking and the use of cookies altogether. To avoid the need for cookies, we are exploring other tracking software that counts page views and clicks but does not invade your privacy, either in the cloud or on your device. This is a new approach that may take time and resources to get implemented but it fits our mission.  We will keep you advised.

26 August 2022: Weekly Roundup #97

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

1. Tip of the Month – August 2022

We have posted a YouTube video highlighting the August 2022 PathologyOutlines.com Tip of the Month about website features. View it at https://youtu.be/5REDrg43Mjs.

2. New Editorial Board Appointment for Stains / Immunohistochemistry

Dr. Brandon Umphress is a recently appointed member of our Editorial Board, overseeing Stains / Immunohistochemistry. Dr. Umphress is currently an Assistant Professor at Indiana University School of Medicine and IU Health in Indianapolis, where he is both a Surgical Pathologist and board certified Dermatopathologist. Dr. Umphress obtained his medical degree at Indiana University and subsequently completed residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Northwestern McGaw Medical Center in Chicago. He received specialized training in oncologic surgical pathology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and further specialized in Dermatopathology at Indiana University, where he now practices full time.

3. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists

To increase the power of your online presence, we recommend that you link your name in your email signature, on social media and on your website to your Directory profile. We now have profiles for over 75% of U.S. & Canadian academic pathologists and we are happy to add more at pathologyoutlines.com/directorysignup.html. These profiles are free, can be easily updated and exist for the entire life of the pathologist. Contact us at Directory@PathologyOutlines.com with any questions.

19 August 2022: Weekly Roundup #96

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

1. Anniversary Updates

PathologyOutlines.com is now starting its 22nd year. This year, we plan to accelerate our topic updates, add more Board Review style question features, expand our Worldwide Directory of Pathologists and have more What’s New in Pathology newsletters. Email Dr. Pernick your suggestions on how we can better help pathologists at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com.

2. Author Recruitment

We invite pathologists to write for our textbook, although either they or someone on their author team must have expertise in the topic they are writing about. The most difficult author qualification is usually: “Within the past 15 years, you must have published at least 5 first or last author journal articles other than case reports, in U.S., European or comparable journals, verifiable on PubMed, about the subspecialty in which you want to write.” See pathologyoutlines.com/authorinformation.html for more information or email Dr. Pernick at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com if interested.

3. Image Contest

Do you have great pathology images? We will soon start a contest to choose the best pathology images, which will be selected from images that pathologists have posted in their Directory profile. We are holding this contest because pathologists love images and because we want to publicize the Directory as a great way to learn about pathologists worldwide.

To participate, you have to create a (free) Directory profile at pathologyoutlines.com/directorysignup.html and add a high quality pathology image. While we are still working out the details, there will likely be prizes of $250, $150 and $100 for the winners. Our Editorial Board or others will screen the images and select the top 20. More details will follow.

Email Nat@PathologyOutlines.com with any ideas on how to make the contest more efficient.

12 August 2022: Weekly Roundup #95

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

1. Curing Cancer Network

We have posted our monthly Curing Cancer Network (CCN) newsletter for July at https://conta.cc/3PV49T4. To receive CCN updates directly to your inbox, visit https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/onz6IND.

2. Advertising

Please use Ads@PathologyOutlines.com to contact us for all possible advertisements, including Jobs, Fellowships, Conferences, banners, books, CME and e-blasts. This email address is monitored by several people. Using other email addresses may cause a delayed response.

3. Informatics

Are you interested in informatics? We have significantly improved our Informatics and Digital Pathology chapter and welcome your suggestions for new topics of interest to pathologists.

4. Caching

To improve loading speed, most of our pages are cached for 4 hours. This means that they do not change for you (even if we change the page) until 4 hours has elapsed after any change. If you load the page on another device that has not previously loaded the page, you will get the most recent version. After the 4 hours has expired, the current version of the page will load.

Note that your institution may also have its own caching policies. For example, one institution kept the same copy of the Jobs page cached for 24 hours so new job ads would not be seen until the next day. Obviously, that is beyond our control.

For any comments or questions about caching or topic suggestions, email Comments@PathologyOutlines.com.

22 July 2022: Weekly Roundup #94

What’s new on PathologyOutlines.com this week?

1. Tip of the Month – July 2022

We have posted a YouTube video highlighting the July 2022 PathologyOutlines.com Tip of the Month. View it at https://youtu.be/O3dMN4QqoGU.

2. Author Recruitment

We continue to look for academics who meet our author qualifications. If interested, email Nat@PathologyOutlines.com with your CV and areas of interest.

3. Senior Authors

We have removed the position of Senior Author from our topics, which we have not used for several years. Although at least 1 member of the author team must meet our author qualifications, we are no longer making a distinction on the website between the authors.

4. Tracking / Cookies

We are investigating the use of tracking software that does not collect any information about you (i.e., no cookies). While we do have to track basic statistics (page views, visits, clicks) in order to function, we want to maintain your privacy and keep the site as user friendly as possible. We will keep you advised.

1 July 2022: Weekly Roundup #93

What’s new on PathologyOutlines.com this week?

1. Curing Cancer Network

Dr. Pernick has revised his prior posts on curing cancer; see Curative cancer treatment based on complexity theory.

It begins:

This essay summarizes my recommendations on how to substantially reduce cancer deaths. In general, we should view cancer as primarily a disorder of a complex biological system that is composed of interacting networks and not as a modular system with faulty parts (Pernick: What should our national cancer goals be, 2021). I also believe that substantially reducing cancer deaths is primarily a management problem to be solved by identifying and implementing a series of appropriate public policy, medical and scientific tasks (Pernick: Strategic plan to substantially reduce cancer deaths, 2021), and not by trying to discover a miracle treatment (Pernick: What will success look like in the war on cancer, 2021).

2. Pernick Prizes in Mathematics and Medicine

We have created an annual prize for Detroit Public School high school students excelling in mathematics and medicine. Here is the announcement for the winners for this year (the first year):

Detroit, MI [June 6, 2022] — The Detroit Public Schools Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the newly launched annual Pernick Prizes in Mathematics and Medicine. These two non-renewable $15,000 awards recognize the exceptional performance and future endeavors of Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) high school students in their respective chosen fields.

3. How Do We Continue to Improve Our Pathology Textbook?

We welcome authors who meet our Author qualifications or who work with someone who does meet these qualifications. But we do not accept contributions of outside images except through our #PathOutPic Twitter hashtag. The reason is that publishing these outside images would require a tremendous amount of extra work by our staff, which would disrupt the optimal workflow for our textbook. Thanks for your understanding.

24 June 2022: Weekly Roundup #92

What’s new on PathologyOutlines.com this week?

1. Jobs Page Updates

We are now listing “remote” as a location for our job ads in the U.S., Canada and other countries. Our Jobs page currently has jobs from 49 U.S. states (except Nevada) and all Canadian provinces (except Prince Edward Island; we have not yet had job ads from the 3 Canadian territories).

2. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists

We now have Directory profiles for over 60% of U.S. and Canadian academic pathologists, which should increase to 90% this fall. Check your profile at pathologyoutlines.com/directory, email us any updates at Directory@PathologyOutlines.com or create a profile to use during your entire career at pathologyoutlines.com/directorysignup.html. We also suggest adding this profile to your email signatures.

3. LinkedIn

View Dr. Pernick’s LinkedIn page at linkedin.com/in/nat-pernick-8967765/ and follow his postings.

4. Website Improvements

What can we do to make PathologyOutlines.com more useful to you? Email Nat@PathologyOutlines.com with any suggestions.

10 June 2022: Weekly Roundup #91

What’s new on PathologyOutlines.com this week?

1. Worldwide Directory of Pathologists Ambassadors

Directory Ambassadors needed for U.S. / Canadian academic institutions. Help your colleagues get better known by making sure all interested pathologists at your institution have profiles in our Directory. There is no pay, but we will send you a gift package in the spring and you will get the gratitude of your colleagues. You can share the workload with others if necessary.

Email Amal@PathologyOutlines.com if interested. See pathologyoutlines.com/ambassadors for the current list.

2. Moving Institutions

Are you moving institutions? Email your old and new email address and institution as well as any other changes to Directory@PathologyOutlines.com. We will update your subscriber email for our e-blasts, your Directory entry and your Author entry, as appropriate.

3. Pathology Images

We would like to post your favorite pathology image on our Home page and on our LinkedIn page. First, make sure you have a Directory profile. Then, upload a good quality image along with a diagnosis. See the blue box at pathologyoutlines.com/directory for instructions. If you still have questions, email us at Directory@PathologyOutlines.com.

4. Website Improvements

We are always looking for suggestions to improve our website. Email Nat@PathologyOutlines.com with your ideas.

3 June 2022: Weekly Roundup #90

What’s new on PathologyOutlines.com this week?

1. Tip of the Month – June 2022

We have posted a YouTube video highlighting the June 2022 PathologyOutlines.com Tip of the Month. View it at https://youtu.be/p0n1reDQ0Go.

2. Curing Cancer Network

Our CCN primer has a new post relating to the Nobel Prize awarded discovery of Helicobacter pylori. Read it here.

3. #PathOutPic

PathologyOutlines is publicizing the use of the Twitter hashtag #pathoutpic to identify possible histopathology images from Twitter to post in our online textbook. If you tweet high quality histopathology images and are willing to grant us permission to use these images on PathologyOutlines.com, please include the #pathoutpic hashtag in your tweet.

4. Fusion Gene / Protein Formatting Change

Going forward, we have decided to use double colons for fusion genes / proteins rather than a hyphen. For example, in the past, these were formatted as BCR-ABL1, NAB2-STAT6, PML-RARA, etc. But going forward, we will use the double colon based on a new recommendation from the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee: BCR::ABL1, NAB2::STAT6, PML::RARA, etc.