I am excited to announce that I am running for the Board of Governors (BOG) of the esteemed College of American Pathologists.

In a nutshell-who am I and why do I want to be on the Board of Governors.

I am proud to say that my grandmother was the first female Hispanic physician in South Texas. My heritage stretches far across the globe and I am definitely a mixture of many sources. I love the field of pathology-my passions are patterns and the mechanisms that they imply. I have spent most of my career as a breast anatomical pathologist and a pathology informatician. I have a strong background in quantitative sciences and in addition to my AP/CP Boards I am boarded in Clinical Informatics. I am fascinated by data, another exploration of patterns. This has led me to understand how important it is to collect high quality data. I am also dedicated to raising the recognition of our profession and as part of that its reimbursement.

Laboratories are facing shortages of qualified personnel because of lower salary potential compared to other fields. We need to make it understood that treatment is based on accurate diagnosis that is becoming more detailed as we better understand disease. Pathologists need to be credited with and recognized as the subject matter experts in diagnosis. Collection of diagnostic data is becoming increasingly complex. Assimilating the data on diseases will lead to better treatments, and that assimilation requires a structure for data capture, which will come from our data. As we move into a paradigm that includes computational tools such as artificial intelligence, the CAP must recognize and protect the breadth of its constituency from small to large, complex practices. These are some of the challenges that we face, along with how do we fix the Medicare reimbursement system, what does the recent FDA rule for laboratory developed tests mean for us, do we need pathology LIS certification, how will we deal with developing quality payment models, should we review educational preparation for medical school, should pathology be a required rotation in medical school, and more.

I have a passion to be a leader in developing tactics and strategies to face these challenges. I have developed my leadership skills as a dedicated member of the CAP, where I have completed my term as the Chair of the PERT Committee, a member of the Council on Informatics and Pathology Innovation and the Information Technology Leadership Committee at the end of 2023. I remain as Advisor to the PERT Committee. I am also a CAP liaison to the AJCC ,to the ASCO CancerLinQ Oncology Leadership Council, and I represent CAP on the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries High Level Strategic Group. I have also developed leadership skills in other pathology related committees and professional organizations. I complete my term as a member of the CLIA Advisory Committee in June of 2024. I was previously elected President of the Association of Pathology Informatics and served from 2020-2021. I have always sought excellence and am proud to say that I was a Marshall Scholar to the United Kingdom.

Above all, I thank my family for teaching me the value of all human beings, of honesty and the pursuit of truth, the importance of compassion, and the need for inclusivity. My family grew up operating their own small business, and I have worked for large corporate entities. Click on the links above for more details, and vote for me in this election cycle! We need to be able to deal with the FDA and LDT’s, with reimbursement issues, with recognition of pathology, to expand our membership and maintain a strong CAP balance sheet, with AI as an LDT and with the growing number of data standards being adopted by the Office of the National Coordinator that will affect our practice as pathologists. I am your candidate!

THANK YOU, MARY E EDGERTON, MD, PHD, FCAP

The portfolio below is a collection of some of of my favorite images from my travels that communicate a little something about me. For the real deal visit the links above.