Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the International Society of Urological Pathology held by web conference on Thursday 15th April 2021 at 2:00 pm Eastern and 7:00 pm CMT
Present: Prof. Theo van der Kwast (President), Prof. Kenneth Iczkowski (President-Elect), Dr Jon Oxley (Secretary), Prof. Stephen Shen (Treasurer), and other members of the Society.
1. Call to order
The President, Theo van der Kwast called the meeting to order and welcomed the participants.
2. Apologies
Apologies were not received
3. Minutes of previous meetings
The minutes of the Annual General Meeting held in Los Angeles USA in February 2020 were circulated to all members and were available on the website. These were taken as read and approved (SS, JO).
4. Voting results
The position of councilor of Australasia was obtained by Dr Joanna Leith Perry-Keene who is a urologic pathologist at Nambour General Hospital/ Sunshine Coast University Hospital in Brisbane. The nomination was made by Prof. Hemamali Samaragunga and Dr. David Clouston (who held this post previously).
The position of president-elect:
Professor Glen Kristiansen was voted as the next President-Elect. He is Professor at the University of Bonn, and Chair of the Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Bonn. He was nominated by Arno vanLeenders and Jon Oxley. He won a narrow vote share victory over Professor Katia Leite who is Professor at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School and the current president of the Brazilian Society of Pathology.
5. Reports
5.1: Report of the President
Theo van der Kwast addressed the meeting and gave an overview of last year’s achievements of the ISUP. ISUP has provided support for pathology trainees through stipends for travel (although there has been no travel in 2020) and recognition of trainee research through the Excellence in Urologic Pathology Awards (since 2002) and free access to the web site and all educational offerings.
There is support for pathologists in underserved countries with a 50% discount on ISUP membership and multilingual web-based offerings. The ISUP is an official sponsor of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, so that journal will usually get preference for society-sponsored publications. ISUP is an affiliated organization of the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR).
The ISUP has two committees: the Stipend Committee with chair, Maria Tretiakova (US) and members Trevor Flood (Canada) and Arndt Hartmann (Germany). The Excellence Committee is chaired by Debra Zynger (US) with members Chin-Lee Wu (US) and Matteo Brunelli (Italy). All member had served their first 2-year term up until March 2021 and have agreed to a second 2-year term until 2023.
Publications included an ISUP consensus definition of cribriform prostate cancer that are evident in the Educational slide set (available at ISUP website) and in Publications in (AJSP, in press; Ann Diagn Pathol. 2021 Mar 22;52:151733)
We continue to be the partner for urological societies world-wide such as EAU, EANM, ESTRO, ESUR, and SIOG for guideline publications.
• We have continued to develop the Imagebase for diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer (Lars Egevad)
Collaboration with Van Diest (Department of Pathology of University Medical Center Utrecht) who will make use of Imagebase for his country-wide study on the impact of an e-learning module on prostate cancer grading.
• Educational slide set of 32 images to improve standardization of diagnosis of cribriform pattern based on ISUP definition (AJSP, in press)
• ISUP presents – Committee (led by Jon Oxley)
• David Grignon Excellence in Education award to stimulate education in urogenital pathology worldwide (ToR prepared by John Srigley, Peter Humphrey and Liang Cheng)
• USCAP Companion Society event – virtual meeting (Convenors Michelle Downes, Joshua Warrick)
5.2: Report of the Secretary
Jon Oxley explained that the Society had initiated a new web-based “ISUP Presents” series. Over 200 people have been registering for the programs including the one presented by Dr. Steve Shen prior to this meeting. The lectures are on YouTube ,some with over 600 views now. Next month Dr. Sean Williamson will speak on “Emerging entities in renal tumor pathology: which are ready for diagnostic practice.?” The recent elections required cleaning up the list of members. There is a plan to clarify membership status using historic data. We will take a team approach to updating the website more frequently this year.
5.3 Report of the Treasurer
Steven Shen presented the Treasurer’s report. The Society had funds of $44,365.62 including the proceeds of the ticket sale of the Nice conference ($6,338.80) as of 2/24/2020. By 3/6/2021 this was increased to $53,719.73 with $31,639 in checking and $22,00 in savings. Expected major expenses for 2021 include the tax return, website update, ISUP trainee stipend award, and Zoom registration and fees. There has been an 18.2% increase in membership payment status in the past year, with 201 paid members
6. Incoming President’s plans. Dr. Iczkowski articulated plans for 2021-22 including:
• Continue to expand the Imagebase website as an educational tool
• Continue the “ISUP Presents” video series, a recent innovation; podcasts are increasingly important. Add monthly literature review. Continue Case of Month
• More frequent update of the website news; use of our new Twitter account to publicize activities
• There is a new research collaboration site on the website. It is to recruit collaborators to send rare types of cases. Nobody has used it yet but we encourage all members to enter in their requests.
• Consensus meetings: Up next is urinary bladder grading for 2022
• Add a new resolution that members’ participation in any other society shall not be discouraged or interfered with
7. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 2:00 p.m.
Dr Kenneth Iczkowski
President the International Society of Urological Pathology