OAP Meeting
Graduates of Western’s Pathologists’ Assistant (PA) program were in full force at the OAP meeting in Niagara Falls, which took place September 18-20th. I was amongst five generations of alumni, all of whom had valuable insights into the profession. The OAP meeting provided a great venue for learning, networking and understanding the scope of practice. Aside from grossing of surgical specimens and performing post-mortem examinations, a PA can be heavily involved in research, academia as well as establishing tissue banks and biorepositories. I learned everything from how to localize radioactive seeds in breast lumpectomies to the importance of accreditation, standardization and quality management – all of which provided me much food for thought as to what I hope to achieve as a PA. It was great to have been able to represent the program by presenting my research poster entitled the “Role of Wnt Pathway in regulating infantile hemangioma stem cell phenotype”.
Steffi Stephenson
2nd year MClSc-Pathologists' Assistant
