By Harriet Feilotter
As we tidy up loose ends before a much-deserved holiday, it’s a good time to reflect on the past year, and dream about what’s coming in 2025. Here at OMPRN, we have lots to think about. The past year has been busy as usual with our growing portfolio of world-class educational tools making a splash. 2024 saw us offering more microlearning modules for our patient partners and their families, as well as sewing up the last threads of the new CCMG molecular pathology e-learning modules that will be available in 2025. We offered a well-attended inaugural two-day workshop on analysis and handling of next-generation sequencing (NGS) data in partnership with the bioinformatics.ca team, and participated in the 86th annual Ontario Association of Pathologists (OAP) meeting. We also ventured into a new area, offering educational grants to our members to help us develop even more pathology-related learning tools to assist our members in gaining traction in the molecular world.
The last initiative mentioned above gave us pause. Encouraged by the overwhelming interest in OMPRN educational events and resources, we expected that the educational grant call would be well subscribed. However, we were somewhat surprised to witness limited interest from our members in accessing this type of funding. On reflection, perhaps we should not have been surprised. Our members, while participating enthusiastically in our educational offerings, and giving freely of their time to help us achieve educational goals, are not primarily focused on educational practice. Rather, they are a group of curious professionals seeking to ask questions and find answers about human disease and pathology, hoping to include molecular understanding into their practices and research programs. That the OMPRN membership is interested in research is not new- but it was a wonderful reminder of why OMPRN exists in the first place- which is to help bring pathologists and CCMG scientists fully into the research space, equipping them with tools and funding to get there.
We heard you. And we are delighted to announce that, even with the budget cuts that we’ve told you about in this newsletter over the past few years, we are bringing back our well-loved research grant program for at least one more year. Careful stewardship of OMPRN resources has allowed us to develop a research fund which will be available to pathology researchers in the coming year. So, watch your inboxes for announcements about the 7th round of the Cancer Pathology Translational Research Grant (CPTRG) competition coming your way! We aim to launch the competition in the spring of 2025 and hope to see enthusiastic uptake and lots of applications.
As we approach the end of the current OICR funding cycle, we do not know what is in store for OMPRN in the next 5-year strategic plan. But we do know that our members have clearly delivered a message that reinforces their interest in research, and their desire to have a research fund dedicated to pathology expertise and pathology interest. Your OMPRN leadership team has heard the message, and is taking seriously their obligation to deliver that message to OICR so that, in the next strategic plan, OMPRN remains invigorated and continues to offer opportunities in research and education for all of our members.
As we bring the work of 2024 to a close, I want to mention a few OMPRN members and contributors by name to publicly thank them for their contributions to our organization. Our Steering Committee, Drs Jane Bayani, Christopher Howlett, Bryan Lo, Amadeo Parissenti, Bibianna Purgina, and Tracy Stockley, as well as our dedicated patient partners, Karen Haas and Terry Hawrysh, are always available for helpful insight and comments, and continue to guide our priorities and approaches. Thank you for your time and commitment to our network. A swath of experts has given of their time to advance the knowledge in our community at various learning events throughout the year including Drs Iain Bancarz, Sasha Gusev, Lawrence Heisler, Bernard Lam, Bryan Lo, Bibianna Purgina and Aaron Pollett. We thank them for their time and enthusiasm in helping to teach our members and others about the intricacies of molecular pathology. I also want to acknowledge the kind and steady leadership we have had from Dr Lincoln Stein over the past years- his calm and practical insight and advice has guided our activities since OMPRN was just an infant, and as he passes that part of his leadership baton to Dr. Michelle Brazas, we are looking forward to working with her! A huge thank you to the newest member of our executive team, Leigh-Ann van Strijp, Lead, Patient Partnership, who has brought enthusiasm and a fresh new voice to our discussions (as well as ensuring we have a social media presence!) and who is working hard to bring exciting new learning opportunities to you in 2025. And finally, Dr Kyster Nanan, who’s warm professionalism, enthusiasm for all things OMPRN and unflagging push for excellence is truly the driver of our success- thank you for all you do.
Happy holidays to all! See you in the new year.
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