Message from the President of the ESP

   Professor Aleš RYŠKA
   ESP President

Dear ESP Members, dear Colleagues,

When I started my presidency in September 2021, the seemingly endless period of Covid-19 pandemics was slowly but inevitably approaching the end and the perspectives for the future looked rather optimistic.

However, the invasion of Russian army into Ukraine initiated one of the worst global crises in the modern history. It is already by far not only the suffering of people of Ukraine (although this is something, what is certainly beyond the wildest imagination for most of us). We are currently facing crumbling of most of traditional mechanisms of our modern society - disruption of global trade, complications in traveling, uncertainty regarding the energy resources etc. Of course, we are “just pathologists” and we have no control over political decisions, we can do only what is in our control and it means providing the best service we can for our patients. Outside of this, we can only hope that the common sense and rational decisions of political representations will stop the madness and help the world to return back on the track.

Still, even in this challenging period, the ESP is functioning and providing the best possible service to our members. The leadership of the ESP is trying to explore new opportunities how to increase visibility of pathology and how to strengthen the position of our discipline in European and global context. Let me highlight one of the activities, which deserves, in my opinion, a particular interest. In May, we organised in Florence a two-days meeting of ESP leadership with representations of multiple global industrial partners. We called this meeting “ESP Industry advisory forum”. Due to rapid development in biomedicine, staying up to date in this area means getting the information about emerging technologies (both diagnostic procedures and treatment approaches) even before they are introduced into routine life. This, of course, requires contact with different industrial partners. On the other hand, every commercial company needs honest feedback from their scientific partners and here pathology plays a crucial role. Thus, such collaboration brings mutual benefits for industry as well as for us. Therefore, we decided to start this kind of formalised collaboration enabling honest exchange of opinions, informing each other about our needs, expectations, potential bottlenecks and areas for future collaboration and improvements. We see a great potential in these activities – webinars, virtual preceptorships, bursaries for our members, support of various educational activities, more extensive involvement of pathologists in clinical trials, etc. We sincerely believe that this will result in great benefits for ESP and our members.

The ESP has successfully organised in June the second edition of the ESP Academy (ESPA) in Genval, Belgium. In line with ESP mission, ESPA has been a great platform to support early career pathologists by providing some guidance and assistance for their projects. The key objectives of this 4-day intensive workshop are to promote excellence in research and innovation among young pathologists and scientists working in the human pathology field, exchange experience among juniors and senior researchers and to engage fellows with mentors and peers to explore opportunities for collaboration and tackle jointly common challenges.

Many of you are now enjoying your summer holidays. The ESP office is working at 110% as the preparations of the Basel ECP are at their peak. As you well know, given the current international situation, the ECP will be organised as a hybrid. The registration numbers are very promising, reaching the values of the most successful congresses from the pre-Covid-19 era. Thus, we are very optimistic and look forward to seeing many of you in Basel in early September.

At the end of my message, I would like to add a very personal note. John Lennon said: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”. Some of you may have already received information about the sudden and completely unexpected passing of one of the best European uropathologists, Prof. Ondřej Hes. Ondra, as we all called him, was not only an outstanding renal tumours expert, but also a very nice person and a great friend. Although, they say that everyone is replaceable, it is hard to imagine the world of pathology without his presence. He will stay in our minds and in our hearts.

Looking forward to welcoming you in Basel!

Virchows Archiv (European Journal of Pathology) is the Official Journal of the ESP.

The Journal is edited by an editorial committee composed of an Editor in Chief, who is appointed by the Executive Committee, and Associate Editors, who are selected by the Editor in Chief.

The mission of the Journal is to advance the scientific basis of human pathology by the publication of high quality research, including molecular and translational studies, and thereby contribute to patient care.