After months of detailed planning and hard work, the Pathology Department held a very successful Educational Symposium for employees on October 23-25, 2018.
The majority of speakers were Pathology faculty, fellows, residents, and employees. As in the past, our program featured wide variety of topics.
This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Redonda Miller, president of Johns Hopkins Hospital, whose talk was entitled, “A Leadership Perspective on Pathology and the Future of Healthcare.” Dr. Miller gave thanks and recognition to the Pathology staff who work behind the scenes.
Dr. Miller stated our 21st century responsibility is to preserve our tripartite mission while maximizing value for our patients. She emphasized that as healthcare continues to evolve, change and innovation must be the norm, and Pathology will continue to play an essential role in caring for patients.
New this year was a talk by four cytotechnologists, Eric Mathews, Bonnie Williamson, Jessica Kahler and Juliana DeLuca, entitled “Cytotechnologists: Who We Are and What We Do.” Other clinical laboratory scientist speakers included Kathy Haddaway who described her research of hemostatic properties of whole blood and implications for massive transfusions, and technical lab specialist Kathy Cowan who spoke about the Flow Cytometry Lab. QA specialist Lona Small of the Core Lab spoke about patient safety and the CUSP program, and resident Dr. David Borzik gave a presentation on medicine and the visual arts.
Pathology director Dr. Ralph Hruban spoke on life lessons gleaned from Dr. William Osler of JHH and Dr. Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University. Their unique experiences and insights can inspire others to create happier lives. Dr. Maxine Sutliffe of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH) in Florida spoke to attendees via live webcast on the topic, “What If … (Sort of) a Boy and (Sort of) a Girl?” Monica Gray of JHACH commented, “Dr. Sutliffe has a wonderful way of presenting strong and complicated scientific information in a manner for all to understand.”
JHACH’s Pathology staff were able to view six presentations by webcast during the Symposium.
In addition, there are seven recordings of Symposium presentations available for online viewing for anyone in Pathology who is interested. Please see link. The on-line poster sessions continue to be a successful part of the Symposium, and special thanks to Linda Gluck and Missy Olson for their hard work.
We had a crew of over 60 volunteers who served as registration assistants, room leads, room moderators, and lunch assistants. A new volunteer, Joanna Grazynska-Johnson, exclaimed, “The Symposium is a fantastic way to get know people who we don’t meet on daily basis! I met our Hospital President Redonda Miller! It is absolutely incredible to know that I am a part of this big event and have participated in making attendees feel very welcome and comfortable.” Allen Valentine, Department administrator, said this about the 2018 Symposium, “It just gets better every year.”
The Pathology Educational Symposium was initiated in 2013 to give Pathology employees the opportunity for a continuing education event that would include speakers from Johns Hopkins Pathology. Attendance has increased from nearly 500 people the first year to almost 700 people in 2018.
Thanks to all Committee members, volunteers and speakers who helped to provide a very enriching educational experience for our employees.