Pathology News Roundup: October 2025

CAP Names Interim CEO. The College of American Pathologists (CAP) has named Akshay Patel as interim chief executive officer, effective October 28, 2025.

Patel currently serves as senior vice president and chief operating officer at the CAP. He will work with outgoing CEO Michael Fraser to ensure a smooth transition in the coming weeks. Fraser is stepping down to pursue an opportunity with another physician organization.

Akshay Patel. Image courtesy of the College of American Pathologists.

“The CAP officers and board of governors have full confidence in Akshay’s leadership and his ability to advance our mission,” CAP president Qihui “Jim” Zhai, MD, FCAP, said in a release. “The board also wishes to express the same confidence and trust in our current executive operations team who together will assist in this transition process.”

Patel brings extensive knowledge and experience with the organization’s membership and laboratory quality programs, as well as finance and information systems, according to the announcement.

Remote Cytology Review Rules Changing in 2026. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued updated post-public health emergency (PHE) guidance addressing the remote review of digital cytology slides. Effective March 23, 2026, CMS will end its temporary enforcement discretion that allowed remote cytology review from locations outside of a CLIA-certified laboratory. This is in addition to the discontinuance of the previous CMS enforcement discretion for review of glass slides, communicated on May 11, 2023.

This update aligns with the CLIA statute requiring that “all cytological screening be done on the premises of a laboratory that is certified.”  Laboratories wishing to continue reviewing digital cytology images remotely after the deadline must obtain a separate CLIA certificate for each remote site.

The revised guidance does not apply to remote review of digital surgical pathology slides, which remain unaffected.

2025 DP–AI Workshop. There’s still time to register for the Digital Pathology–Artificial Intelligence (DP–AI) 9.0 Workshop, taking place November 6–8 in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. Registration closes October 31 for this event hosted by the Association for Pathology Informatics.

This year’s programming explores cutting-edge themes including institutional and vendor collaboration, DICOM’s expanding role in DP–AI, automation and digitization, and the emergence of foundation models, generative AI, and regulatory frameworks shaping digital pathology.

As a Diamond Level Lab Partner of this year's DP-AI Workshop, Voicebrook will showcase the next evolution in digital pathology workflows — the industry’s first fully speech-enabled digital pathology ecosystem, powered by VoiceOver PRO. Attendees will see a hands-on demo of VoiceOver PRO integrating voice, AI, and DICOM interoperability for seamless digital reporting. Voicebrook will also take part in a panel discussion focused on the ways in which innovation and automation will shape the AP labs of the future.