The Renal Pathology Society held a Board of Directors meeting on Saturday March 1 pm 3-5pm at the Hyatt Hotel, Mineral Hall F, in Denver, Colorado.

The meting was called to order by President Mark Haas. In attendance were: Mark Haas, Helen Liapis, Tibor Nadasdy, Maria Picken, Guillermo Herrera, David Thomas, Surya Seshan, Terry Cook, Steve Bonsib, Serena Bagnasco and Jim Pullman. Suzanne Meleg-Smith, Franco Ferrario, Ingeborg Bajema and Alex Magil were unable to attend. Maria-Carmen Avila was invited to attend on behalf of Ingeborg Bajema.

1. Approval of the agenda
2. Previous meeting minutes presented by the secretary were approved with minor changes.
3. Samy Iskandar was proposed to the position of the Society Historian and the possibility of an update to the bylaws to make this an official position within the society. The proposal was accepted unanimously.
4. Mark Haas asked the BOD to approve a charitable donation in memory of Dr. Gloria Gallo. The BOD agreed to an amount of $300 to the American Cancer Society on behalf of the RPS.
5. RPS Functions at this meeting were summarized by Mark Haas.

   -   Business meeting, Sat. 3/1/08, 6-7 pm, Capitol Ballroom 1, Level 4, Hyatt

-   Reception, Sat. 3/1/08, 7-8 pm, Capitol Ballroom 2, Level 4

-   Dinner and Presentations of Young Investigator and Churg Awards, Sat. 3/1/08, 8 pm Capitol Ballroom 4, Level 4

-   Companion Meeting, Sun. 3/2/08, 8:30 am, Convention Ctr., Korbel Ballroom 1                 

                  Topic:  The role of complement in the pathogenesis of renal disease

                  Chairs:  A. Magil & A. Herzenberg

                  Speakers:  T. Cook, D. Salant, J.C. Jennette, R. Colvin

         -   Satellite Meeting, Sun. 3/2/08, 1-5 pm Capitol Ballroom 1, Hyatt

                  Topics:  Proficiency testing in renal pathology and beyond, plus case presentations

                  Chair:  J. Pullman; Speakers:  P. Furness, S. Raab, B. Bennett, A. Howie, A. Cohen

         -   Evening Specialty Conference, Sun. 3/2/08, 7:30 pm, Conv. Center 201/203

                  Topic:  Mad about deposits;   Chair:  R. Colvin

                  Speakers:  V. D’Agati, L. Cornell, M. Haas, M. Picken, J.C. Jennette

6. Update on RPS – KUFA joint ventures.

Surya Seshan informed the BOD that KUFA funds are available to support the satellite meeting in 2008. She mentioned changes in KUFA location and funding process, but that KUFA will once again fund 2, $5,000 each awards this year.  The grants will be reviewed by Lorraine Racusen chair of the grants committee, Mark Haas and Surya Seshan (members).

Mark has written to KUFA in regards to the sales from Jean Oliver’s drawing “The Tree of Life”, proceeds of which will be entirely donated to RPS. Surya will follow up on these changes / initiatives and inform the grants committee. It was proposed that the Tree of life fundraising should be featured in our Brochure and Maria Picken to include this in the next cycle of the RPS Brochure prints. Also, Surya proposed that KUFA may be interested in funding an award in the name of Gloria Gallo.

There have been discussions about a joint KUFA-RPS Kidney Cancer symposium or non-Neoplastic kidney in Tumor Nephrectomy specimens. Steve Bonsib and Surya Seshan will take on the decisions.

The BOD was unanimous in regards to strengthening ties with KUFA and inviting its representatives to attend our Reception at the ASN regularly, starting in the fall with the ASN in Philadelphia.

7. Reports of committees:

Nominating & Awards:  Steve Bonsib Chair

Steve presented a detailed account of the society’s awards and suggested fine tuning the language in the website and in the bylaws so that members understand better the criteria and process (complete report is attached below). Proposed changes were approved by the BOD.

The Liliane Striker Young Investigator award

The Nominations and Award Committee received five nominations for The Liliane Striker Young Investigator Award. The competition was close and the decision was difficult. However, we are pleased to announce that Yigin Zuo, MD, Ph.D, a fellow working in Agnes Fogo’s Laboratory, was selected as this year’s recipient.

The Pirani Travel award

There is no recipient of the Conrad Pirani Travel award. We had no qualifying candidates.

The Jacob Churg award

This year’s recipient of the Jacob Churg Award is Gary Hill, M.D. We had several highly qualified candidates, but one individual stood out and was the unanimous choice of the Committee on the first vote.

Issues presented for discussion:

1. Should we limit nominations for the Young Investigator Award to a single nominee per nominator? This year we had an RPS member nominate three fellows from the same laboratory. BOD agreed.
2. Should we limit awards to a maximum of one per person? This year we had one individual request consideration for the Conrad Pirani Travel Grant who was also nominated for the Young Investigator Award. We allowed this, but internally agree that two awards would not be given to the same person. BOD agreed.

Financial: David Thomas Chair

David proposed a plan for the financing of travel expenses of speakers at RPS-sponsored meetings. The BOD approved the following:

An annual amount of $2,500 was decided to be available from the RPS for use to support invited lecturers to RPS satellite meeting. This dollar amount will be determined for the upcoming year by the BOD. Likewise, a $2,500 allocation will be made to the Educational and Scientific Committee (one speaker - 100%; four speakers 25%).

Unused funds will not rollover into the next year’s amount. Unused money does not become "in addition" to the determined annual amount. Modifications to the designated "RPS Lecturers Annual Fund" will be done outside of the "fund" via other available mechanism for financial supplementation.

Report of the secretary

We currently have a TOTAL of $61,645.00 increase by $18,557.00 since last November.  Expected to pay about $ 6,000 for the reception and to cover all expenses for the satellite meeting from registration and donations, we’ll be left with ~$55,000.  Our budget in 1/1/06 when I took over was = $29,796.57. Our budget has doubled in 2 years. Main sources of income: members’ dues and income from the satellite meeting (paid in full by KUFA. Extra income from Aperio and the registration fee ~$3,000-4,000).

RPS has almost doubled its membership in the last 2 years (from 257 members to 396 currently; actual increase = 41%). 75% are full paying members. Junior members increased by 40%; emeritus remain the same, members from developing countries who do not pay dues currently at 11 (not much increase). New member trends: in 2007: 61% were from Foreign Countries

As of 2/26/08: ~50% of members paid = $12,300.00 were collected.

Main expenses: RPS Reception X2: ~ $10,000/year

NEED TO DEVELOP A 5-YEAR PLAN

Support with the website and extra hours for secretary: Periodic clean up operations. Need budget approval. The BOD approved the proposal and suggested proceeding with amendment of the bylaws to cover expenses for secretarial support.

Paid dues 3 year Summary

Communications & Publications: Suzanne Meleg-Smith Chair

Members Samy Iskandar, Maria Picken

During the last year, thanks to the help of Bing He, PhD, the RPS website has acquired a new face and a RSS Feeds access for immediate highlight of important updates.  Our website was developed by Kim Solez in 1994; since 2000, it has been maintained by the Communications Committee.  In the near future, the website will be further enhanced by the work of a professional webmaster, under the direction of the RPS secretary.  Suzanne, with Bing’ help, will facilitate the transition.

On-going new projects:   Maria has updated the RPS flyer. Samy, as the RPS historian, will assemble information, data and photographs to illustrate our history.   Suzanne is offering to write in Spanish some of the information posted on the website: she would welcome suggestions as to which specific pages, titles, should become bilingual.

Education & Scientific: Jim Pullman Chair

The 2008 committee was formed in October 2007, and consists of Jim Pullman, Chair, Laura Barisoni (continuing from the previous year), Mark Haas and Alec Howie. The activity of this committee from late October to date has been focussed on the advance planning of the March 2008 RPS/KUFA Satellite Symposium in Denver at USCAP. The details of the meeting are all in place, except for printing a CD-ROM, since not all of the presentations have been submitted (as of Monday Feb 25).

We decided to do something a little “out of the box” this year, and have put together a session on proficiency testing (and beyond) in renal pathology. We obtained 5 top notch speakers, and expect to have a highly educational and stimulating symposium, as well as to generate some useful ideas on what is a very problematic area for us, particularly given the unlikelyhood of ever getting board subspecialty certification.

For the first part of the symposium, we have 3 speakers: Peter Furness to speak on his already extant system of proficiency testing in the UK, Steven Raab, a pathologist who is working on one of the few systems in the US, for derm path, and the Vice President of the American Board of Pathology, Betsy Bennett, who tells me that the entire Board is interested in the ideas presented at our symposium. The second part of the symposium, “beyond proficiency testing”, will deal with handling technical and interpretational issues  that might be beyond the scope of proficiency testing, with Alec Howie handling the first part, and Arthur Cohen the second.

The last hour (or just under) will be devoted to interesting and/or difficult cases submitted by the membership. It will form an interesting postlude to the second part of the symposium.

ASN 2008 Program committee: Terry Cook

Terry announced that several RPS sponsored symposia were accepted this year, including ANCA vasculitis, transplant pathology and thrombotic microangiopathy. The renal biopsy symposium will be chaired by Ian Roberts. The clinical nephrology conference will be on lupus. Raymond Harris, chair of the 2009 ASN program committee was contacted by Mark and Surya so that RPS is included once again next year.

Membership: Ingeborg Bajema Chair was absent. Carmen Avila-Casado: Vice-Chair

Members: Samih Nasr and Michael Mengel. Carmen presented the committee’s report.

The membership committee wants to thank Ian Gibson, Carrie Phillips and Michio Nagata for serving for the membership committee in 2007. We welcome Samih Nasr and Michael Mengel as new members for 2008. Carmen Avila-Casado is now Vice-Chair of the membership committee, and will be Chair in 2009. Ingeborg Bajema has remained Chair for 2008. Since the ASN-meeting in San Francisco, November 2007, the membership committee received applications of 6 new members, which were all accepted by the committee for Regular Membership:

Four applications which were pending during the ASN-meeting, were finalized, namely of: Francesca Minnei (Italy, Junior Member), Kazuo Honda (Regular Member, Japan), Sekiko Taneda (Regular Member, Japan) and Zaher Radi (Regular Member, USA)

Marc Barry was a junior member, and became a regular member per January 1, 2008.

Marcello Franco requested and received emeritus status

Five applications are momentarily under consideration.

In 2008, the membership committee will again put an effort into contacting members who are in arrears for two years, in order to keep the membership list up-to-date. As always, the membership committee will try to recruit new members amongst all those interested in nephropathology.

Members with unpaid dues for >2 years: a list was drawn by the secretary and the BOD agreed that such members who remain in arrears after several notifications sent by the secretary to be terminated. President Mark Haas to write termination letters.

Program: Tibor Nadasdy Chair

Maria M. Picken, MD, PhD, Michael Mengel, M.D., Shane Meehan, MB, BCh members.

The committee already started to plan some program possibilities and floated ideas through emails. We will develop a plan for RPS companion meeting program at the 2009 USCAP meeting in Boston, MA.  We will also discuss at least 4 options for topics to discuss at RPS sponsored ASN programs/symposia in 2009.

Research: Franco Ferrario chair was absent. His report is attached below.

Luiz Moura, Andrew Herzenberg, Ian Roberts, members

1)    Classification of IgA Nephropathy: the circulation of cases among the pathologists for scoring is in its last stages. The collection of clinical data is almost complete.

Planned meetings:Thursday 1st November 2007, during ASN renal week.

7^th-9^th April 2008 Magdalen College, Oxford

2)    ANCA-associated renal vasculitis: frequency of small, medium and large size vessel arteritis in renal biopsies (by F. Ferrario).I am preparing in collaboration with Kensuke Jo a new questionnaire with histological pictures(from EUVAS and Japan).The purpose is to try to standardise the definition and the type of vessel involved as arteritis: in the majority of histological forms in different studies (Lupus, vasculitis, IgA Nephropathy etc )there are always different size arteries to be scored but never a definition of this size. I think that with the presentation of images all interested participant could better express their opinion facilitating a possible consensus on vessel involvement.

3)    Multicenter international retrospective study on repeat biopsy in Lupus Nephritis: to validate a new classification, to evaluate the transformation from one class to another (in particular class III and IV-S to class IV-G), to evaluate the clinical relevance of II biopsy for therapy and outcome of the patients (by F. Ferrario and Surya Seshan).We are contacting many Countries all over the word and try to find some grants for the study.

Other projects not yet in progress:

1)    Classification of Diabetic Nephropathy (by Emile de Heer).

2)  Consensus on Histologic diagnosis of calcineurin-inhibitors (CNI) nephrotoxicity in renal transplantation (by R. Hennigar with possible sponsor Wyeth and Genzyme)

Meetings in which RPS was and will be involved:

1) CME Course on Renal Pathology held at ERA_EDTA Congress (Barcelona-21 June 2007) organized by V. Nickeleit, M.P. Rastaldi and F.Ferrario.

2) International vasculitis meeting during the San Carlo Borromeo Advances in Nephrology (Milan December 6th 2007) organized by D Jayne and F. Ferrario with the sponsorship of ASPREVA.(see program on the web-site).

3) ERA-EDTA CME Course on Lupus Nephritis (Stochkolm 10-13 May 2008) organized by D. Jayne, Agnes Fogo and F. Ferrario.

Training programs: Serena Bagnasco, Chair

Jan Brujin, Tony Chang, Robert Colvin, members

Activities of the Committee since the last RPS meeting in San Francisco (ASN)

Renal Pathology Training for Residents

Recently published reports of unrecognized non-neoplastic lesions in tumor nephrectomies, and the results of a survey of Residency Training Programs in Pathology were discussed. The survey showed that only about 36% of the programs require a rotation in Renal Pathology, which indicates inadequate training in renal pathology for many trainees.    The consensus was that more discussion will be necessary to determine which approach is best for the RPS on this issue, which is ongoing.

Evaluation of non-neoplastic lesions in tumor nephrectomies

Tony Chang has sent a letter (signed by several members of the RPS) to both the CAP Cancer Protocol/Checklist Committee and to Dr Timothy Smith of the ADASP to urge changing from Optional to Required the completion of Additional Findings and Comments describing other lesions in the renal parenchyma in the current guidelines for the Anatomic Diagnosis Checklist for Renal Neoplasms. 

Dr. Smith replied that he forwarded the request to a committee of experts who assembles the checklists.

Opportunities for ACGME accreditation

Three Renal Pathology fellowship programs in the US are currently ACGME-accredited: Johns Hopkins University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Washington. Dr Colvin was invited to review the Hopkins program in 2007, which he views as a good model for other programs considering ACGME accreditation.

No inquiries were received by the Hopkins faculty about starting the process of accreditation by other programs following the ASN meeting.

Proposed activities for 2008

Evaluation of non-neoplastic lesions in tumor nephrectomies

• Continue to follow up with the request for amendment of the CAP Checklist and Anatomic Diagnosis Checklist for Renal Neoplasms of Tubular Origin with the ADASP.
• A possible proposed activity for 2008 could include establishing best practice guidelines for evaluating the non-neoplastic renal parenchyma of tumor nephrectomies, suggesting that a PAS and/or Jones silver stain be performed on the non-neoplastic parenchyma,  and that a tissue sample be submitted for IF and EM at the time that the specimen is grossed. However, the latter may be optional when EM tissue can be retrieved from the paraffin block and when IF staining can be performed on slides from paraffin embedded tissue.
• In order to promote more awareness of the importance of this issue among nephrologists, uropathologists, (surgeons) by other avenues, the possibility of organizing a small symposium/round table with experts at national meetings such as USCAP, ASN (or others) could be considered.

Post-graduate training in Renal Pathology

Collect updated information to compile a working list of post-graduate AGCME-accredited and non-accredited clinical, clinical/research training programs in Renal Pathology in the US, and abroad, through a questionnaire.   This may form the basis for development of future initiatives to expand and improve education in nephropathology in different countries.

Training in Renal Pathology for Residents

• This issue should be brought up for discussion again at the USCAP meeting to better define the position of the RPS membership.
• One possibility to motivate residents to learn Renal Pathology could be to include more Renal Pathology questions in the Board exams.

International: Surya Seshan Chair

Committee members – L. Racusen, T. Cook, K. Joh, A. Cohen, L. Salinas-Madrigal

The international committee has been very busy with various issues (see detail report below).  In short, the RPS satellite symposium was decided to take place in Mexico City in April 2009 in conjunction with the Latin America Society of Nephrology. Guillermo Herrera with chair the RPS-KUFA satellite conference and will work with members of his committee and Maria Carmen Avila-Casado in preparing an outstanding program.

Dr. Seshan’s detailed report follows:

1)    Renal Pathology Society Website - under “Hot News” – following have been set up for:

-   Potential training sites

-   Speakers bureau (pool)

Preferred geographic area

Preferred topics

2)    Survey from International Committee sent asking about RPS members travel abroad (countries) and training visitors from other countries (summary of preliminary results to follow).

3)     In the process of soliciting and facilitating RPS website linkage to other Renal Pathology Society websites around the world

4)     RPS and Latin American renal pathology ad hoc committee created (members L. Barisoni, L. Salinas-Madrigal, S. Meleg-Smith) – Initial communications very encouraging.  L. Barisoni will have a report.

a.   The following issues will be addressed:

-   Membership recruitment

-   Increased participation in RPS activities

-   Access to RPS website

-   Organizing educational sessions at various levels (basic and advanced level)

-   Selection of potential speakers including Spanish language

-   Foster collaborative research

-   Survey renal pathology practices

b.   Report from L. Salinas – The Division of Superior Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico has granted full approval to conduct a training program for Nephropathologists in Mexico, initiated by Dr. Norma Uribe, Dr. Guillermo Ramon-Garcia and L. Salinas-Madrigal, making Saint Louis University as a co-participant in this program.

5)     Started communication with COMGAN (A. Cohen, A. Fogo) to obtain additional information from centers under COMGAN to advance RPS activities, such as membership, education, access to RPS website for training centers with COMGAN support etc.

6)     Proposal: Establishing an International roster of renal pathologists (similar to RPS membership list) was initiated by our past president.

-   Name, address, Institution address, email, phone, fax, topics of interest

New business:

Amendment of the Presidents Manual: Councilor’s election process. The BOD approved minor changes to the existing manual. The secretary will take care of these.

Amendment of the bylaws to incorporate several terms as discussed above was agreed upon unanimously. The ballot will be circulated by e-mail.

The meeting was adjourned at 5.15pm