What is Happening at ISUP in 2022

Dear Fellow ISUP Member

 

Revised Constitution and Bylaws (available on the website www.isup.org) is available. This is intended to improve the representation of our members in the various leadership positions of the Society as outlined below.

 

Elections

 

2021 was an election year.  Results will be announced at Annual General Meeting 2022.

All individuals up for election will be requested to provide a brief biosketch, a vision for ISUP and a photograph before being placed on the ballot. We had excellent nominees.

 

Committees

 

The new Constitution and Bylaws include two standing committees (the Stipend Award Committee and the Excellence in Urological Pathology Award Committee). Each of these committees will now include a Chair and three ordinary members. The terms are limited to 2 years and can be renewed only once. Drs. Maria Tretiakova and Debra Zynger have renewed their terms as chair as of 2021.

There is also a Grawitz award committee to recognize individuals who have made great contributions to the Society: The committee comprises Drs. Srigley, Williamson, Kao, and Comparat.

The David J. Grignon Excellence in Education Award is to recognize individuals with outstanding educational contributions. There have been no applications yet and this will be re-announced at AGM.

Anyone interested in serving on these committees for 2023 should contact me and let me know of their interest.

 

The Constitution allows for the formation of new committees from time to time as is deemed appropriate by the council. We are currently exploring forming several new committees that seem appropriate for a Society with the membership we have.

The council would welcome input from membership on this topic, including suggestions for new committees and reason why they would be of value.

 

Website development

 

Under the leadership of Dr. Egevad and with Dr. Williamson as webmaster, the ISUP website is one of which to be proud. It provides information about the Society and its history, functions as the membership portal, is utilized for educational activity and serves as a research tool to evaluate the impact of online educational activity. The case of the month feature under the leadership of Dr. Evans has proven to be extremely popular and all members are encouraged to submit interesting cases. In the past year, the number of unique visitors to the website increased 26% to 9,239 and the number of page views by 24% to more than 101,000! Nonetheless work on the website continues. We are looking forward to launching a greatly enhanced educational offering that will provide quizzes for individuals allowing them to both learn and test their knowledge. Most exciting is that those quizzes and the feedback provided will be available in multiple languages to serve the international community that is crucial to our mission as a truly International Society. We have recently improved the membership function and cleaned up the membership lists. We have about 1500 members.

 

ISUP Bibliography

 

As noted before, a PubMed search of “ISUP” today yields 279 relevant hits. Of these, the term ISUP or International Society of Urological Pathology is in the title of at least 100 articles. The remarkable productivity of the Society and its impact is a source of pride to us as members. Further, the efforts highlight the remarkable participation of members in these activities. As was noted, all 4 publications from the Vancouver kidney tumor meeting included on the authorship line the “ISUP Renal Tumor Panel.” A PubMed search of any of the 134 names listed as members of the panel leads to the 4 articles, recognizing the contribution of each individual in a formal and public manner. In the coming months an “ISUP bibliography” will be developed for inclusion on the website to highlight the impact the Society has had.

 

 

Consensus Conference

 

The Council is working on the Basel, Switzerland urinary bladder consensus conference to take place in September 2022.  This will explore the grading of bladder cancer, tumor typing, and molecular profiles.

 

The Council is excited by the many activities planned for the coming year. As indicated above, we seek input from the membership on a number of specific topics and all comments/suggestions will be given serious consideration. It is our intent to provide the membership with regular updates throughout the year as progress is made on these and other initiatives.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kenneth A. Iczkowski, MD

President

kaiczkowski@mcw.edu