Pediatric and Developmental Pathology 6, 105, 2003 DOI: 10.1007/s10024-002-2132-0 © 2003 Society for Pediatric Pathology

CONTEXT

Resident’s Case Presentation Awards: Introduction Published online February 10, 2003.

The Society for Pediatric Pathology (SPP) sponsored a new award program this year to foster the career development of pathology residents who are interested in pediatric pathology. More than 20 applications were received for the inaugural Resident’s Case Presentation Awards (RCPA) and three winners were selected by an ad hoc committee whose members were privy neither to the applicant’s names nor their institutions. To be eligible, each applicant had to be in an accredited North American pathology residency program. The application consisted of a single-page case report related to the theme, “Unique Aspects of Pediatric Pathology.” Aside from the length, the format of the case report was left to the discretion of the author. However, it had to describe an anatomic or clinical pathology case and indicate how some aspect of the particular case highlighted a difference between pediatric pathology and other subspecialities. The awards included travel expenses to attend the 2002 Interim Meeting of the SPP, presentation of their work at the meeting, lunch with three “legendary”

figures in the field of pediatric pathology, a 1-year subscription to Pediatric and Developmental Pathology, and publication of their case report in the journal. The 2002 RCPA recipients are Amy Hareema (Stanford University), Brigitte Nixon (University of Washington), and Dinesh Rakheja (University of Texas, Southwestern). Their award-winning case reports are presented in this issue. Each of these individuals gave outstanding presentations of their work at the Interim Meeting in Dallas. Their involvement at the meeting conveyed genuine enthusiasm for pediatric pathology and each plans to pursue formal fellowship training in that subspecialty. Given the initial success, the SPP plans to offer the award in 2003, as well.

Raj P. Kapur Department of Laboratories Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center 4800 Sand Point Way NE Seattle, WA 98105, USA