Why Pathologists Need to Advocate

Robert Johnson:

As a pathologist, you know how to advocate. The question is, do you have the time to let Congress know where you stand? Pathologists will visit Capitol Hill later this month to ask Congress for support on Medicare payment reform, workforce legislation, and other important pay related policies. The meetings with elected leaders and their staff members are part of the CAP's Annual House of Delegates and Pathologists Leadership Summit planned for April 26th through the 29th. Dr. Diana Cardona is vice chair of the CAP's Council on Government and Professional Affairs and a member of the CAP's Board of Governors. Our first question, why should pathologists make time to be part of this advocacy event?

Dr. Diana Cardona:

I think I would say that if a pathologist really thought about it, they're already quite involved in advocacy. People always view as advocacy just at the kind of large federal government level, but I would venture a guess that pretty much every single pathologist is doing something advocacy related, either advocating for themselves at their job, for their patients, for their laboratories, for their staff members. And so I would form it a little bit differently and maybe say, why should they do a little bit more? And if folks haven't noticed, there's a lot of activity going on right now in Washington.

It's pretty unprecedented, really. And so if you haven't been engaged before, what a better time, right? There's just so much energy going on in DC whether you agree with it or don't agree with it, there's a lot of energy, and if you don't think about the importance of how these proposed changes might impact your ability to do your job or your ability to provide the best care for your patients, that really is the reason why.

I think now more than any other time prior, folks really need to be willing to dedicate that time to just set aside a couple of days to come and exercise their right, which is just once you actually do it, it's so much fun and you get a little hooked, I think. And I think it's really important because if you really think about it, who else is going to advocate for you? There's not a lot of other people that necessarily understand what we do, and so if they don't know about us, how would they know to advocate for us? And so we really, truly are our best advocates, and so those are the primary reasons why I would say now is the time, if you haven't done it before, to engage.

Robert Johnson:

Following up then on the comment that pathologists are advocating all the time at home, how does that translate to advocating here in Washington, DC?

Dr. Diana Cardona:

I think advocacy oftentimes boils down to educating. Oftentimes the folks don't understand what potential implications there might be with a proposed change or proposed legislation. For example, wherever you might be working, there might be some kind of change or something happening at your local level, and they don't understand the implications to the laboratories or to you personally or to your staff members. And so oftentimes it's educating them on that issue. And that's the same thing you're doing when you go to Washington, DC is educating them on what we do, the impact of what we do, the importance of what we do to their constituents in their district or in their area. And then once they kind of understand those implications, they're very willing to listen and oftentimes very willing to partner with you to figure out how to either mitigate that impact or change what they're doing.

Robert Johnson:

Some pathologists may prefer to send a text or write a letter, and while we like those tools and we use them often here at the CAP, can you talk a little bit more about the power of showing up? Why being here together, going to the hill together, why that's important?

Dr. Diana Cardona:

Yeah. I mean, the CAP definitely offers our members lots of opportunities to engage in other ways. We've got PathNET where it's that system that allows you very easily to send a letter to your congresswoman or your congressman, but going there in person showing that extra initiative and efforts, they value that. They really, truly want to hear from their constituents when they get mass emails, although it's important, and they can gauge like, wow, we got a thousand letters about this one topic. Obviously, it's very important. That definitely matters. It puts the issue on their radar, but having you actually go in person and talk to them and explain it to them, allow them to ask you questions. I remember one time I was there talking about an LCD issue, so local coverage determination, about special stains and IHC and was giving him an example of h pylori and gastritis in this one. Legislative aid just kind of paused and said, you know what? One of my best friends has gastric cancer. He's like, so explain to me again how this matters. And it was just that one connection that all of a sudden he took notice of like, wow, this is actually going to potentially impact patients in a significant way. Writing a letter, you don't have that same opportunity to make that connection.

Robert Johnson:

You've done these meetings before. What's your biggest takeaway from the Hill Day experience?

Dr. Diana Cardona:

For me, it's really rewarding. I always a learn something through the process, whether it's in dialogue with the specific office or in dialogue with my colleagues that are there advocating alongside with me. I learn about their experiences, I hear their stories, and sometimes I learn things. I'm like, wow, I didn't even think about that potential implication or that possible impact. So always learn something from it. It's really invigorating to exercise that, right? That we have to go to Capitol Hill and express our opinions and views. And then it's also rewarding because I feel like we're doing it for a good reason. We're there trying to advocate what's best for our patients, and in order to do that, we have to advocate for our profession. Again, it's rewarding and it's also, I think the impact that you potentially have is also pretty tremendous.

Robert Johnson:

The summit runs four days. Hill Day is actually the last of those four days. How do you see the rest of the program, those first three days getting members ready for their visit to the Hill?

Dr. Diana Cardona:

So the [Pathologists] Leadership Summit is in combination with the House of Delegates. That transition happened a couple of years ago, and I think that that has worked out really well. You have a lot of educational activities ranging all different topics from our specialty, really thinking about hot topics, things that are really innovative. So there's the educational piece of it that really is also providing you an opportunity to get up to date on all of these policy related topics as well in a really rapid fashion. So you feel confident that, okay, I know what's happening in real time right now in Congress, and then you have an opportunity to actually practice that pitch, so to speak, right? If we know what our two or three high priority items are during that discussion, during your time there leading up to Hill Day, there's this kind of learning how to give your pitch, practicing it with your colleagues.

We usually take turns on like, all right, well, we are meeting in this office. Who's going to take lead? Who's going to give business card? Who's going to offer a lab tour? And everybody has a sense of ownership, and we rotate that, at least we did in my delegation, so that everybody has that opportunity to experience all the different pieces of that meeting. And so all of that is done ahead of time. So on the day of Hill Day, you feel really good about your preparedness and that you've honed in that message, and then you also know who's there with you, so you don't feel alone necessarily. Now, I'm not going to say you won't be alone. There are some times where you are the only one in that room. It's very rare, but hopefully that's not your first meeting. You've been in other meetings already, so you kind of get that routine. I would say that other kind of benefit of the Leadership Summit is also the networking. It's so much fun being able to meet with old and new friends that I meet each time, whether it's the annual meeting or the PLS, and that's just another way that I, from a personal nurturing, career development perspective, love that networking opportunity that the conference provides.

Robert Johnson:

If you are concerned about the impact of federal policy on you and your patients, then you need to make plans to be in the nation's capitol. This, the good news is you still have time to sign up to attend the CAP House of Delegates and Pathologists Leadership Summit. There's a link in the show notes for the College of American Pathologists. This is Robert Johnson. Have a great day.