One Decade On

It’s anniversary time. The Pathologist is 10 years old! Yes, our first edition hit your doormats in 2014 – the year of the ebola epidemic in West Africa and the mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Also in 2014, the Rosetta mission successfully landed Philae on a moving comet, President Obama announced the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than 50 years, and Scotland voted “yes” to stay in the UK. And, on a lighter note, we were all dancing Gangnam style, thanks to South Korea’s Psy and the power of YouTube.

I peeked through (OK – scrutinized!) that very first print edition to ascertain the hot topics in pathology at the time. Not surprisingly, ebola genome sequencing featured heavily in our news roundup. We also reported the FDA’s plans to regulate laboratory developed tests – a topic which we revisited at the end of last year, via the Association of Molecular Pathology’s response to the proposal. Human proteome maps and real-time tumor type identification were introduced as cutting edge “NextGen” topics. And our cover feature? A piece on “Facing the Digital Future of Pathology,”, examining the benefits and challenges of implementing “this inevitable technology.” One of the contributors to the piece, Marcial Garcia Rojo of the Hospital de Jerez de la Frontera in Spain, predicted it would “take longer than 10 years to see digital pathology fully embraced across Europe.” 

A study published in 2023 confirmed that Garcia Rojo was right (1). Of 75 European pathology labs surveyed, 57 percent had no digital pathology capability. Europe was noticeably lagging behind Asia in this study, where 73 percent of labs had an established digital pathology workflow. Even in Asia, it appears that “fully embraced” is quite some way off.

We will be running some 10-year reflection pieces throughout the year, so keep your eyes peeled for those. But, back to the present day, we predict a hot topic this year might be climate change and its effects on the spread of tropical disease. This issue was certainly a concern at the recent COP28 meeting, where the United Nations included a dedicated “Health Day” for the first time. Our feature in this issue explores this theme, with a discussion of the increasing spread of Lassa fever and dengue fever (amongst others) by two experts in the field.

Our sincere thanks for supporting The Pathologist for the last decade, and here’s to the next 10 years!