Dear Members of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Community,

I am very grateful that so many Department members have taken the initiative to support all our efforts around leadership development, diversity, equity, inclusion, and wellness. In light of their work, I want to share with you a few resources from our colleagues.

The Penn Medicine Academy has made some of its "Lead Strong" leadership tools available publicly (note: some links will still require PennKey and 2FA logins).

Recently, Dr. Mike Feldman, our Vice Chair for Clinical Services, joined the PMA Lunch with Leaders talk on "Authentic Resilience," where he and Dr. Gretchen Schmelzer, an executive coach and consultant, discussed the pandemic’s traumatic ripple effects and offered some tips and strategies for resetting. This was a very honest conversation about exhaustion and the repair we need and can create for ourselves, our patients and families, and our communities. The conversation also provides pragmatic tools for resetting and offers some hope along the way. I encourage each and every one of you to take some time to listen to this discussion. The video is available publicly on the Penn Mediasite. (The talk is also featured in a recent Penn Medicine blog post.)

In a previous Lunch with Leaders conversation, our Chief Operating Officer Bob Challender discussed self-care strategies, along with Dr. Thea Gallagher, Director, Outpatient Clinic at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety and Penn COBALT, and others. While this discussion is from an acute period of stress during the pandemic last year, it is still very relevant for finding coping strategies during challenging times. This video is also available publicly on the Penn Mediasite.

Last month's MLK Jr.'s Health Equity Symposium featured the keynote speaker Vanessa Northington Gamble, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Humanities at George Washington University on "An Index of Social Condition: African Americans, the 1918 Influenza Epidemic, and COVID-19." In case you missed it, you can watch the event on video here.

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. For the upcoming International Women's Day on March 8, the IDEA committee is asking everyone in the Department who is interested to team up for individual or group photos showing the pose of this year's theme of #BreakTheBias. These photos may then be featured on our social media channels (Twitter and Instagram) and the Department website. More information is available here. If you or your team would like to participate, please submit your photos to Daniel Wild no later than March 1.

Finally, the Wellness committee would like to point you to the UPHS Well Focused events for this month.

There are two more resources I want to bring to your attention. The Digital Pathology Today podcast recently featured Dr. Mike Feldman to discuss the state of the practice of digital pathology in 2022. Topics covered include integrated workflows, predictive and prognostic algorithms based on H&E morphology, and incorporating AI into workflows and/or diagnostic assistance. He also poses the question have we finally made the business case for wide scale adoption of digital pathology?

Drs. Roger Cohen and Donald Siegel discuss the novel CAR T-Cell medullary thyroid cancer clinical trial at Penn Medicine, and which patients should participate. Dr. Siegel initially created this CAR-T cell therapy to try to save one of his decades-long close friend and colleague, but unfortunately did not succeed in time for him. He hopes this may be the first solid tumor CAR-T that works. The podcast is available here.

David Roth
Chair, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in these blog columns are those of the authors or other attributed individuals and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department, Penn Medicine, or the University of Pennsylvania. Health information is provided for educational purposes and should not be used as a source of medical advice or diagnosis.