This meeting was another success story. We had three international speakers.
On Friday, Dr Henry Tazelaar from the Mayo Clinic spoke on two topics, “Risk management in the pathology laboratory” and “Interstitial lung disease.” Both of these produced lively discussions.

On Saturday, Dr David Weedon, Sullivan and Nicolaides Pathology, Brisbane, held the audience in suspense with his Oscar winning performance on skin conditions. After his talk, the President, Warick Delprado presented David with a Distinguished Pathologist Award of the Division.

On Sunday, Dr Jennifer Hunt, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA, led us gently but thoroughly through “Head and Neck pathology.” She beautifully illustrated the use of morphological diagnosis and the ancillary approach of molecular pathology.
We are extremely lucky to be able to attract this calibre of international speaker to our meetings.

Dominic Spagnolo in delivering the Vincent McGovern Memorial Lecture gave an erudite talk on “NK lymphoma.” This difficult topic was well presented to those neophytes in the audience as well as to the established Lymphomaniacs.
There were 436 registrants. 200 attended the cocktail party, and 80 the dinner.
I would like to thank Warick Delprado for all the work he and his committee put into this meeting. In stepping down as President, Warick completed 19 years of active work on the Executive. It is only through the generosity of such people that this meeting continues to be a success.

Soon Lee (organiser of the poster displays), Richard Jaworski ( organiser of the web site), Brett Delahunt (President elect).

David Weedon being presented with a Distinguished Pathologist Award by the President, Warick Delprado.

Warick Delprado presents Peter Cropley with a Distinguished Pathologist Award.

Con Theocarous and Veli Marjoniemi recieved special awards for their long service to the Division.

The retiring Executive - Con Theocarous (Sec.), Warick Delprado (Pres.), Veli Marjoniemi (Treas.)

The International Congress in Brisbane in 2004 was voted “the best meeting yet” by the President of the IAP, Professor Ushigome. When the final accounts were known, it was found that it had resulted in the third largest disbursement of funds from an International Congress. The chief organiser of the Congress, Robin Cooke, was not able to attend the Annual Meeting because he was giving invited lectures on Infectious Diseases to the Bolivian, Chilean and Argentinian Divisions of the IAP. Bob Eckstein who organized the outstanding Scientific Programme was on hand to receive the thanks of the Board and the membership. Both of them were presented with Special Service Awards for their efforts in running the Congress. They were ably assisted by a large number of individuals from the Division and from abroad. The Board wishes to acknowledge and thank all of these for their untiring efforts in making the Congress the success that it was. It could not have happened without the wholehearted support of all members of the Division. It was wonderful to note that there were 518 delegates from Australia and 48 from New Zealand. It was also very encouraging to see so many Trainees attending the Congress. We all hope that they were stimulated and encouraged in their pursuit of a career in Pathology by their attendance.

A Distinguished Service Award was presented to Peter Cropley, the foundation Secretary/Treasurer of the Division. He was also the founding Editor of the News Letter of the Division. This was one of the first such Newsletters to be published by a Division of the IAP. His award was richly deserved.

Poster Prize Winners
There were 21 posters submitted. Thank you Soon Lee for organising them. Winning posters listed below by first authors:

Pathologist/Scientist Winner – Mr K H C Chung, ACT Pathology, Canberra.
Characterization of the Radial Glia and Astrocytic Lineage in Human Fetal Cerebral Cortex

Pathologist/Scientist Commendation – Dr Liqing Zhuang, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney.
Examination of Death Receptors (DR4 and DR5) for Tumour Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL)

Registrar Winner – Dr Patrick Lai, Pathcentre, Perth.
Quality Assurance (QA) IN Cervical Biopsies: Review of Slides, P16 & MIB-1 Immunohistochemistry, & Human Papillomavirus (PHV) DNA PCR

Registrar Commendation – Dr K Rodins, ACT Pathology, Canberra.
Barrett’s Oesophagus: What is the Likelihood of a Negative Biopsy in Surveillance Patients?

Richard Jaworski continues to run the website of the Division.

The 2006 meeting will be held at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre, Sydney, June 1-3, 2006. It will be based on Uro-oncology. The speakers will be Dr David Grignon, Professor of Pathology at Wayne State University Michigan, and Dr William Murphy recently from the University of Florida.
David is an internationally renowned speaker with a particular interest in renal malignancies, and Bill has had a longstanding interest in bladder tumours and prostate cancer. All these topics are important to the practising pathologist as there are ongoing controversies in staging and grading.

I would like to encourage current members of the IAP to convince younger pathologists to join. There are multiple benefits to being a member. These are subsidised fees for our local meeting as well as the international and American meetings. It is through our subscription fees and our annual meeting that we are able to continue as a successful division of the IAP. In particular I would like to encourage registrars to join. The 2006 meeting will have a specific session devoted to registrars. This would involve a practical approach to aspects of pathology and will be exclusively for people in training.
The committee is also looking to support pathologists from our region to come to Australia for our annual meeting and to visit laboratories whilst here. It is an important part of our Division’s philosophy to foster relationships with our regional colleagues.
If anyone is interested in helping or nominating particular people, I would encourage you to write to me.

John Pedersen, President.

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Left to right; Stephen Fairy, Jane Nankervis and John Pedersen

John Pedersen works at Tissupath and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. His research interests include prostate cancer, stem cells, and fibrosis in Hepatitis C infections. His other interests include breeding Long Horn Wiltshire sheep.

Stephen Fairy holds a B.App.Sci in medical laboratory science and studied medicine at Newcastle University. He trained in Anatomical Pathology at Concord Repatriation General Hospital and ICPMR at Westmead. He has been with Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology since 2003. His main professional interests are in the field of genitourinary pathology.

Jane Nankervis works at Southern ImL Pathology in Wollongong. She has worked there since completing her training (St George Hospital, Sydney and The Childrens’ Hospital at Westmead). Her main areas of interest are gastrointestinal pathology and skin pathology.

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PRESENT: John Pedersen, Warick Delprado, Stephen Fairy, Con Theocharous, Jane Nankervis, Veli Marjoniemi, Robin Cooke, Bob Eckstein, Richard Jaworski, Jan McLean, Rayleen Jovanovic
The meeting was convened as a “hand over” forum to the new executive.

Points discussed:
DVDs
Dr Jaworski opened discussion as to whether to proceed with DVDs for slide seminars. Decided it is the decision of the convenor whether to provide DVDs, CDs or glass slides.

Yearly Schedule
Dr Delprado advised the meeting of the general schedule for the year.
Meeting advised that the ASM brochure is usually sent out to members during February, but could be sent earlier if ready.
Three mailings are sent out during the year-
February/March contains the international and national newsletters and ASM brochure.
May contains Australasian newsletter advising details of Companion Clubs, international newsletter
November contains new member forms, newsletter, AGM minutes, Annual Accounts
An executive meeting is desired to be held around August to plan the meeting details.
Annual subscription invoices sent out end November for subscription year 1 December to 31st November

Congress 2004
Dr Cooke reported the profit from the Congress at $84961
The accounts had been audited by KPMG who had also made the final accounting adjustments, including reconciling the Congress National Bank Account.
The shared profit amount of $42,500 to the IAP will be the third largest on record.

Annual Scientific Meeting
Dr Pedersen had checked with the RCPA re timing of the registrars examinations and informed that the date is set close to our meeting for the foreseeable future.
Discussion followed whether to hold a registrar session on the Sunday afternoon, similar to short courses that would be dedicated to registrar teaching.
Dr Delprado suggested a registrar session could be held on the Friday mid morning to run parallel to companion meetings.

Newsletter Editor
Dr Cooke suggested it could be time to enquire if anyone else interested to take on the position of Editor. He is happy to continue for the present.

Sponsorship
Discussion as to whom the division could sponsor to attend the national meeting. It was suggested two people from South East Asia, either two young pathologists or one young and one senior. The people attending the Beijing meeting are to obtain a few suggestions of names.

Subscriptions
Meeting decided to leave the cost of subscription at the present level.

Annual Dinner
It was decided to continue holding the Annual Dinner. A venue is to be sought.

Instant Feedback gadgets
Dr Pedersen advised he was looking into hiring Feedback handheld gadgets for an interactive session at the ASM.

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XXVI International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology
September 16 - 21, 2006 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Preparations are well underway for the 100th Anniversary Congress of the IAP to be held in Montreal.

Visit www.iap2006.com to review the preliminary scientific and social programs. For this unique anniversary celebration, we are also planning a number of special events, including the preparation of a time capsule destined for our fellow pathologists in the years to come, to which you will be invited to contribute.

To better confirm and manage your participation, the Congress is moving to an exclusively online registration process. Poster abstracts, congress registration and hotel bookings will all be available at www.iap2006.com in the fall.
Plan now to come to Montreal to participate in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Academy.
Rick Fraser
Congress President

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ASM Dates

Dates of future Annual Scientific Meetings of the Australasian Division of the IAP
2007 June 1 - 3
2008 May 30 - June 1
2009 June 12 - 14
2010 June 4 - 6

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