Dr. Nast called each of the Chairs of the various committees to give their report.

1. Dr. Herrera gave the financial report indicating that the RPS has in assets, as of February 28, 2003, $27,757.88. Dr. Herrera indicated that the main expenses are the receptions for the members at the USCAP and ASN meetings and the banquet at the USCAP meeting which is partially supported by the RPS (all together averaging about $10,000/year). The Treasurer’s report is in an attachment.
2. Dr. Liapis gave the report of the Publications and Communications Committee for Dr. S. Meleg-Smith who was not present.
3. Dr. Markowitz reported on the activities of the Membership Committee. Nine new members were approved and two members were granted emeritus status. A copy of the report is attached.
4. Dr. Bonsib gave the Program Committee report. A copy of this report is attached.
5. Dr. Racusen provided the report on behalf of the Training Programs Committee. A copy of the report is attached.
6. Dr. Walker reported on the ongoing activities of the Research Committee, and a copy of his report is also attached.
7. Finally, Dr. Haas reported on the activities of the Education Committee.
8. Dr. Nast proceeded with the President’s report.

1. She thanked Dr. Fogo for all her efforts on behalf of the RPS while she was President.
2. She informed the membership about the Bylaw changes (outlined in the Board of Directors minutes) and announced that a mail vote to approve them by the membership will follow. A ballot is enclosed. Please return by fax to Dr. Herrera, 318-675-7662.
3. She briefly announced the potential association of RPS with KUFA (Kidney and Urology Foundation of America) for enhancing research and education programs. Dr. Nast will pursue this potential relationship which may be mutually beneficial to both organizations. She clearly stated that if this is perceived to be advantageous to the RPS, it must not affect the independence of our Society and must be approved by the membership. Dr. Nast will provide followup to the subject in the next meeting.

Committee reports. March 24, 2003

COMMUNICATIONS C0MMITTEE REPORT GIVEN BY H. LIAPIS FOR S MELEG-SMITH

The main objective of this committee is to continuously expand communication inside the RPS, and between RPS and other medical societies. The committee is composed by Helen Liapis, Suzanne Meleg-Smith (chair) and Kim Solez..

The achievements of the committee for the past year include:

All material submitted to the committee - memo, announcements, cases- have been posted on the web-site and e-mails sent to RPS members. The membership data and yellow pages are continuously updated upon request.

The RPS web-site has now an interactive page for electronic submission of cases for the DDD project, developed by Dr Ferrario. The web-site has also been a communication tool for the posting of consecutive "editions" of the collaborative paper on Renal Biopsy.

The "NEPHNPPT E-mail discussion group for renal pathology", placed by Kim under the auspices of the RPS, has seen a more frequent use.

To increase RPS visibility, links have been established from other web-sites to ours, including the Washington Evening Specialty Case Presentation available both on the on the RPS and the ASN sites.

We have added a new section "Hot news" to the RPS web-site, to facilitate access to the latest memos, newsletters, etc

MEMBERSHIP C0MMITTEE REPORT GIVEN BY G. MARKOWITZ

At the conclusion of the ASN 2002 meeting, the total membership of the Renal Pathology Society (RPS) was 235. Since that time, the membership committee has received 9 new applications plus 2 applications from current members who wish to switch to emeritus status. Our membership committee unanimously agreed on the acceptance of all 11 applicants; their acceptance was approved at the RPS meeting at the USCAP on 3/24/03. Following acceptance of the 9 new members, the total RPS membership has increased by 3.8% to 244.

New membership applicants: Phillip Ruiz, Zheng Dong, Andrew, Herzenberg, Jennifer Klenzak, Giovanna Crisi, Gerald Appel, Marleen Praet, Samih Nasr, Helen Cathro

Emeritus applicants: Marie-Laure Brisson, Liliane Striker

While we are in favor of the RPS having a high profile at meetings and possibly in the RPS considering some form of advertising, we still believe that the best mechanism to find new members is "word of mouth". We have continued to encourage this among members and among ourselves.

TRAINING PROGRAMS C0MMITTEE REPORT GIVEN BY L. RACUSSEN FOR S. BONSIB

Program Committee Chairman — Stephen Bonsib, MD

Members - Laura Barisoni, MD

ASN Liason - Lois Arend, MD

The RPS will sponsor and co-sponsor 2 programs at ASN 2003 as listed below.

Saturday, November 15, 2003, 10 AM — 12 PM

Title: "An SLE Update: Clinico-Pathologic Correlations"

Moderators: Surya Seshan, MBBS and Stephen Bonsib, MD

Speakers: J. Charles Jennette, MD — "New Concepts in the Classification of Lupus Nephritis: Pathologic Aspects" Lee A. Herbert, MD — "Clinical Implications of the New Classification" Howard A. Austin, MD — "SLE Nephritis in Different Clinical Populations: Therapeutic and Prognostic Features"

Sunday, November 16, 2003, 10 AM to 12 PM

Title: "Advancing Our Understanding of Congenital Renal Diseases"

Moderator: Helen Liapis, MD and Iekuni Ichikawa, MD

Speakers: Friedhelm Hildebrandt, MD — Novel Genes Causing Nephronophthisis and Medullary Cystic Disease", Thomas Benzing, MD — "Signaling through Nephrocystin and Nephrocystin Protein Interaction", Adrian Woolf , MD — "A molecular and Genetic View of Human Renal and Urinary Tract Malformations", Cathy Mendelsohn, PhD — Vitamin A and Ret Involvement in Ureter Morphogenesis and Renal Malformations.

TRAINING PROGRAMS C0MMITTEE REPORT GIVEN BY L.RACUSSEN

Dr. Racusen announced that the Renal Pathology fellowship program at the Johns Hopkins University had been approved as a Selective Pathology training program by the ACGME. The successful application has been forwarded to all of the other training program directors, and other interested parties, to serve as a potential template for other ACGME applications. To date, of those responding, none had yet used the template to apply, but several plan to do so soon.

To better assess person-power needs in renal pathology for the next 5-10 years, a brief survey was sent to Pathology Chairs via the Association of Pathology chairs, headed by Dr. Julian Garvin. To date, 23 responses have been received. Of responding departments, current staffing for renal pathology includes: 2 programs with 0 FTE; 4 with 1 X 0.5 FTE, 5 with 1 FTE, 5 with 2 X 0.5 FTE, 1 with 2 X 1 FTE, 3 with 2 X ? FTE; 1 with 3 X 1 FTE, 1 with 3 X 0.3 FTE, 1 with 4 X 0.5 FTE, 1 with 4 X 0.25 FTE. In all, 11 departments had no full-time renal pathology position, 5 had 1, 3 had 2, and 1 had 3. Part-time renal pathology faculty did combined Surgical Pathology in 10 cases, Research in 3, Cytology in 2, Autopsy/Cardiac in 1, Clinical Pathology in 1, and Immunocytochemistry in 1. 19 of the programs reported increasing case loads (range 1-2% to 100-150 cases per year); only 5 reported stable case loads. (None reported a decrease). Regarding needs in diagnostic Renal Pathology over the next 5-10 years, 12 programs indicated that their staffing would remain the same, 1 predicted a slight increase but not to a full-time FTE, and 10 predicted an increase by 0.5 to 2 FTE. The committee plans to re-send the survey to the RPS members in the US — watch your e-mail!

Finally, Dr. Franco Ferrario, the European representative on the committee, has undertaken an important initiative in Europe, where Renal Pathology is not a fully recognized specialty in pathology, with no possibility for a recognized qualification in renal pathology. However, some of the ground work for recognition is in place in the context of multicenter studies and trials with the participation of a team of pathologists evaluating renal biopsies. Franco suggested possible creation of a more official European committee to establish training programs in renal pathology. In collaboration with Drs. Cook, Bruijn, and Weening, a proposal for training programs in renal pathology was presented to the ERA-EDTA Council by Dr. Rosanna Coppo, supported by Professor Locatelli. The council charged Dr. Coppo to organize a new CME program in which a Renal Pathology committee would be officially involved. Franco feels that this is a good starting point for realization of a European Network of Renal Pathologists as a recognized specialty area. While Dr. Ferrario could not be at the USCAP meeting, he is eager to report further progress on this initiative at the upcoming ASN meeting in 2003.

RESEARCH C0MMITTEE REPORT GIVEN BY P. WALKER

1. Best Practices

The paper was reviewed by 3 reviewers for JASN and was rejected with chance to resubmit after major revisions. There are ten pages of comments including the letter from Dr. Couser. My sense is that if we can adequately address the comments, this will be ccepted. I think that the extensive nature of the comments suggests that the Reviewers and the Editor would like to publish this paper - if appropriately revised.

2. Dense Deposit Disease

a. Kidneeds has funded the grant proposal and the money will support one or at most two meetings of the reviewing pathologists to carry out the review process.

b. Dr. Ferrario, the project coordinator for the European Group reports: I am very sorry not to be able to come to USCAP meeting.

Until now I have collected 19 cases of DDD with complete clinico-pathological features. I am waiting from Japan( Dr. Kensuke Joh-Sakura) other 21 biopsies of 10 cases(repeat biopsies). Moreover I have collected about 20 biopsies with only histological material, being old cases with lost clinical data. We can use these cases only for a morphological evaluation of different lesions in DDD.

c. I have received a total of 8 cases. The biggest problem continues to be the IRB forms.

d. I am considering contacting two Brazilian Pathologists recommended by Dr. Fred Silva, to ask their help in forming a South American Group; Dr. Marcello Franco. Depto. Anatomia Patologia - EPM, Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo and Dr. Luiz Moura. Sao Paulo

3. Renal Pathology Society Research Grant

a. I sent the attached document for consideration to the members of the Research Committee and the Scientific and Education Committee. As you can see, the replies were overall quite positive.

4. Some Potential projects were suggested and I list them here:

a. Dense Deposit Disease, are there treatable subtypes (already being attempted)

b. Diagnostic criteria for Thin Glomerular Basement Membrane Disease (M. Haas)

c. Review Paper on potential diagnostic uses of new techniques:

Genomics? Proteomics? Confocal and other 3D imaging techniques? Others?

d. Validation of the new Lupus Classification

e. The tubulo-interstitium in glomerular disease, how to better quantify fibrosis

5. Modest Proposal

The regulations regarding retrospective clinicopathologic analysis of cases are totally ludicrous. The risk to the patients is nil or at least asymptotically approaching zero and the loss to patient care is great.

Approach various Society lobbying groups and try to get these regulations changed. The Majority leader in the Senate is a physician, there are a number of physicians in the House (including the representative from my district in Arkansas). This may be something we can accomplish if we think it is important enough.

EDUCATION C0MMITTEE REPORT GIVEN BY M HAAS FOR J BRUIJN

Committee Activities planned for 2003:

1. Initiate meeting on the classification of IgA nephropathy, preceded by a survey of RPS membership.

2. Lupus nephritis: study reproducibility of new classification system and extend classification to include tubulo-interstitial changes

3. Increase visibility of RPS during EDTA-ERA meeting

4. Collaboration with Pat Walker, Research Committee, and other interested members on follow-up to best practices paper adding new techniques (i.e., beyond histology, IF, IHC, basic transmission EM). One example could be immuno-EM (e.g., see paper by Herrera, Truong and colleagues in March, 2003 Human Pathology).

5. Work with Research Committee in developing guidelines-suggestions for further facilitation of inter-institutional Collaborations.

6. Contribute to pre-ASN PGE course.

7. Organize renal path courses 2003 in Leiden and Heidelberg.

8. Start organizing 2nd European Renal Path workshop (June 11-22, 2004, Vienna).

9. Renal Path Guide (Bruijn/Fogo).

One additional item that was raised was an effort to standardize criteria for diagnosis of thin glomerular basement membrane nephropathy. If there is interest this could start with a survey of RPS members followed by organization of a committee of interested members.