APC/PDAS 2012 Meeting

APC/PDAS Members and Colleagues,

You are invited to join us for the 2012 Association of Pathology Chairs, and Pathology Department Administrators, Midwest and West sectional meeting.   We are planning an exciting and informative event to be held in Cancun and Chichen’ Itza, Yucatan, Mexico, from Nov 07 to 11, 2012.

To assist Chairs and Department Administrators in preparing to meet the many changes facing pathology, we will be opening the meeting with selected guests from the NIH, AAMC and key federal agencies.  They will provide us with realistic perspectives on what to expect regarding funding and regulations coming out of Washington, D.C.   Protected time has been set aside for you to caucus and discuss issues of primary importance to your organization.    A special effort will be made to highlight new funding and research opportunities.

Special arrangements have been made through our event coordinator to allow us to have special access to some of the most spectacular archeological sites on the Yucatan peninsula including the relatively undeveloped site at Ek Balum.   In keeping with good laboratory practices, our schedule of events and locations has been pretested and validated by the Association of Microbiology and Immunology Chairs during their annual meeting.  The meeting will open on Thursday at the Ibersostar Cancun Resort and our annual banquet will be held that evening on the beach under torch light.

In response to comments from past chair meetings, we have moved the afternoon meetings to early evening to provide for more time for individual and group interaction.  After the second morning of presentations and discussion, we will relocate our entourage via chartered bus to Chichen’ Itza where we will stay at Mayaland, the famous German resort adjacent to the original archeological site.  We will also visit the Balananche' Cave and swim in a sacred cenote.  The following morning, our third session will begin with a focus on quantitation of productivity and benchmarking and strategies for strengthening partnerships throughout the academic and private community. If you would like to suggest items for the "hot topics" discussion, please feel free to email or call either of us.  We look forward to seeing you in Mexico.