1994

The idea for a combined meeting of some of the Regional Divisions of the IAP was born during conversations that Phil Allen of Australia had with his colleagues in the field of soft tissue tumours while he held a temporary position in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

It may have been the Japanese representatives, Shinichiro Ushigome and Eisei Ishikawa who raised the subject, because they had already been engaged in running conjoint meetings with Korean pathologists, and Phil was assisting with meetings with pathologists in mainland China.

It was Phil who acted to make the idea a reality when he wrote to the then President of the Australasian Division of the IAP, Denis Moir who embraced the idea with enthusiasm.

A correspondence ensued between Ishikawa, Ushigome and Moir that resulted in Ushigome attending the 1994 meeting of the Australasian Division in Sydney in June 1994 to finalise the arrangements.

Photos taken during this meeting are included in the presentation.

1995

High level representatives from Japan, Hong Kong, and Korea attended this first meeting in Sydney in June 1995.

Photos taken during this meeting are included in the presentation.

Minutes of the meeting and a report on the meeting in the News Letter of the Australasian Division are shown.

The Australasian News Letter was started in 1973 by Peter Cropley and he continued for 10 years. Warick Delprado and Alan Palmer were each Editors for a short time. From 1989 it has been continued by Robin Cooke. In 1995 he also took on the Editorship of International Pathology – a News Bulletin of the IAP.

Meetings of an ad hoc committee were held at the IAP Congresses in 1996 and 1998. The minutes of these meetings are shown.

1999

Prof Moon-Ho Yang offered to conduct the second meeting in Seoul, Korea in 1999.

2000

In 2000 the Japanese Division hosted the International Congress of the IAP in Nagoya.

Shinichiro Ushigome was the main host, being President of the Japanese Division. He was ably assisted by Rikuo Machinami, President of the Congress, and an active committee which included Minoru Suzuki and the next generation of pathologists led by Osamu Matsubara and Robert Osamura.

Professor Ushigome was able to enlist the Emperor’s brother, Prince Hitachi, who was accompanied by his wife, Princess Hanako to open the Congress. His Royal Highness kindly elected to break with tradition and mingled with the delegates.

Much to the delight of the delegates he consented to be photographed, and many delegates were photographed with the Royal couple. The Prince patiently endured being almost blinded by the flashing cameras.

The Japanese Division was formally constituted in 1960. (Some of the members who guided its early development attended the meeting in Sydney in 1995). Educational meetings were held in various parts of Japan and then conjoint meetings with neighbouring countries were increased. This outreach continues to expand.

Japan is a country steeped in history. It had been a closed society for centuries, but since it was opened to the world in the late 1800s it has had considerable influence in its geographical region, and the world at large.

Members of the Japanese Division – Hiroshi Hashimoto, Osamu Matsubara and Robert Osamura kindly introduced me to traditional Japan during a visit in 2008.

Medical education was begun in Nagasaki in the 1820s with the introduction of herbal medicine and operative techniques that were the leading edge ‘scientific medicine’ from Europe. There are a number of medical families who can trace their roots back to original students at the Medical School in Nagasaki.

One of these is Osamu Matsubara the current President of the Japanese Division. His wife, Akiko is a 4th generation doctor from the Uni of Nagasaki. Their daughter, Aya, graduated from the Uni. of Nagasaki in 2007 and she is a 5th generation doctor from this University.

As part of their outreach programme, the Division hosted a conjoint slide seminar in Fukuoka in September 2008.

Photographs illustrating these subjects will be shown.

A modern Department of Anatomical Pathology headed by Professor Toshiaki Manabe in the University Hospital in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan is shown.

2003

The third meeting of the APIAP was held in Bangkok, Thailand in January 2003.

The Thai Division was formally established in 1960. It is active in organising National educational meetings, and it hosted this very successful meeting of the APIAP.

The Kingdom of Thailand has a rich cultural history as is evidenced by the Royal Palace and some beautiful temples that are built along the river in Bangkok.
The floating market is one of the colourful tourist attractions.

There are also large and modern hospitals and a number of Medical Schools.

The Division has hosted some conjoint meetings with other Divisions. In 2007 they hosted one with the German Division. The chief organisers of this meeting were Thiti Kuakpaetoon and Dietmar Schmidt.

The next generation of Pathologists led by Pongsak Wannakrairot will be running the International Congress of the IAP in 2014.

2004

The 2004 International Congress of the IAP was hosted by the Australasian Division in Brisbane.

Shinichiro Ushigome was President of the IAP and Florabel Mullick was Secretary. Warick Delprado was President of the Australasian Division, Robin Cooke was President of the Congress, and Robert Eckstein was Chairman of the Scientific Committee.

The Congress went very well and delegates came from many countries. Photographs of some delegates are shown.

Two innovations were introduced at the Congress. It was the first one in which only power point presentations were used. These presentations were controlled from a central computer station. In spite of reservations expressed by many people, this went quite smoothly.

The other innovation was that all 22 slide seminars were presented on CDs using a ‘virtual slide’ method with fixed images. The handout book was printed as a flowing document rather than the more stilted method of just photocopying the power point presentation. It would have been nice to be able to print the book in colour, but this was not practical and the images were presented in black and white.

Since 2007 the slide seminars at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Division have been presented as CDs with handout booklets in full colour.

The Australasian Division was formally established in 1973. Since that time it has become the main scientific association of the Anatomical Pathologists in Australia and New Zealand.

It is governed by a Board with representatives from each State and New Zealand. It is administered by an executive consisting of the President, Secretary, Treasurer, Past President and President elect. The Editor of the News Letter attends meetings of the Executive as a non voting member. The Division employs a full time Secretary (Mrs Jan McLean) and her assistant, Mrs. Rayleen Jovanovitch.

The current state of the Division is best explained by the report on the 35th Annual Scientific Meeting June 4-6, 2010 by the President, Richard Jaworski

The attendance was 570 from Australia and New Zealand with some visitors from other parts of the Asia Pacific Region.
The keynote speakers for the weekend were Glenn McCluggage, Belfast, U.K. (Gynaecological pathology) and Philip LeBoit, San Francisco, USA. (Dermatopathology)

This year’s programme included three Master Classes.
Initially intended for Trainees these classes have proved so popular that they have been opened up to all registrants.
Topics this year were Neuropathology, FNA breast, Endocrine Pathology.

The Robin Cooke Medal for meritorious service was given to Professor Kon Muller in recognition of his efforts for the Academy both at international and local levels.
The Distinguished Pathologist Medal was given to Professor Douglas Henderson for his outstanding contributions to the science and art of pathology

This year we hosted three overseas pathologists to attend our meeting - Dr Abha Gupta, Fiji; Dr Razmin Ghazali, Kuala Lumpur and Dr. Sonal Kulkarni, Western Samoa.

2005

The fourth meeting of the APIAP was held in Beijing, China in August, 2005.

China has a long history and a rich cultural heritage. Some aspects of this were seen by accompanying persons on the tours arranged by the organisers.

There are an estimated 10,000 pathologists in China. Only a relatively small number of them speak enough English for them to be able to benefit from a conference in English. To cope with this, a parallel meeting was held for this group.

Attempts are being made to upgrade the standard of medical education and to upgrade the skills of pathologists. This international meeting was helpful in furthering these endeavours.

The chief organisers of this meeting were Jiang Gu, Bing Quan Wu and John Chan with help from HK Ng and Lilly Ma

There were more international delegates and speakers than at previous meetings. Kristin Henry, Chair of the IAP Education Committee brought 5 speakers from the British Division. David Hardwick, Secretary of the IAP took the opportunity to present Shinichiro Ushigome with a gold medal of the IAP for distinguished service to the IAP.

Some of the delegates visited the Department of Professor Jiang Gu at the University of Peking.

Others visited the Pathology Department of the first Military Hospital. This Hospital was being upgraded for treating foreigners who attended the Olympic Games in 2008.

Eighth Meeting of the Association of Directors of Pathology of China in Shanghai,
Co - organized by the Chinese Division and the Hong Kong Division.
October 22-24, 2010

The conference was organized mainly by the Shanghai Cancer Hospital

Thirteen international speakers were supported by
the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Pathological Society of UK, Department of Pathology of University of British Columbia, Department of Pathology of Calgary University, St Vincent’s Hospital (Melbourne), Chinese American Pathologists’ Association.

David Hardwick, Secretary of the IAP and Charles Ramey, Assistant Secretary of the IAP represented the IAP at the Meeting.

The conference was an enormous success with attendance over 700, being restricted mainly by the availability of accommodation during the World Expo at Shanghai.

It was the last such conference that the Chinese Division and the Hong Kong Division would co-organize for a long time.
In the future, they will in fact not organize their own big conference but will instead join forces with the Chinese Society of Pathology in their annual conference in 2012.

2007

The 5th meeting of the APIAP was held in Singapore in May, 2007.
This highly successful meeting was organised by Gilbert Chiang, Angela Chong and their committee. About 550 delegates attended.

The benefits of a multicultural meeting such as the APIAP provides was very evident.

One of the interesting innovations at this meeting was a plenary session at the beginning of each day.
Another was the introduction of ‘Meet the expert round table discussions’ during the lunch break.

The University of Singapore has developed a reputation for the excellence of its teaching. One of the Pioneers of the medical school, K. (Ratnam) Shanmugaratnam was honoured for his very important 50 years of contribution to this reputation.

Singapore derives much of its income from being a ‘free port’ where goods can be transhipped from one container ship to another for final distribution. There is always a long line of ships waiting to be docked where the loading and unloading can be done very quickly.

It also has large dry docks for ship repairs and vast hangers for maintenance and repairs of large aircraft.

The National Orchid Garden is a tourist ‘must.’

Relevant photographs will be shown.

2009

The Indian Division is one of the oldest Divisions, being formed before 1965. The Division and the Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists have been actively engaged in continuing education activities for many years. They hold annual meetings and regional meetings.

One of the National Meetings was held in the city of Patna on the banks of the Ganges River in 1995. The Secretary at the time was GN Mohanty from Orissa State. He was followed by Rama Gopolan, Madras.

Francisco Couto was the next Secretary. He built on the progress made by his predecessors and greatly expanded the IAP Indian Division.

He established a News Letter, and increased the educational activities of the Division. He also established many International contacts which were invaluable when he came to run this meeting.

In his report as President of the Division he said that there were 130 Faculty speakers and 630 delegates from more than 26 different countries.

At the formal meeting of the Conference the International visitors were entertained by items that showcased some of the cultural depth of India.

Tourist visits were available to see the history of Kochi as a trading port, and now an important base for the Indian Navy.

In the Hills to the East there are many tea plantations that date from the late 1800s. This area is one of the major areas for production of tea for which India is famous.

While the main religion is Hinduism, other religions are accepted. The Christian Medical College at Vellore in South India has become world famous, and is rated amongst the first 10 medical colleges in India.

Pictures taken in 1995 and 2007 showing the pathologists at both these times.

2011

The 7th meeting of the APIAP will be held in Taipei, Taiwan May 22 – 24 2011.

The organisers are promising a great meeting with again, a significant number of international speakers and delegates. It will be hosted by Shih-Ming Jung and his organising committee.

The Division was formally established in 2004 and the first meeting was held in Taipei in May, 2005. The chief organiser was Tseng-tong Kuo and the then President of the Division - Donald Ho. There were two keynote speakers, Robin Cooke and HK Ng.

There are about 500 pathologists in Taiwan and 300 of them attended the inaugural meeting.

Photographs of the inaugural meeting will be shown, as well as a photograph of the organisers of the upcoming meeting.

2013

The 8th meeting of the APIAP was held in Seoul, Korea in 2013.

2015

The 9th meeting of the APIAP was held in Brisbane, Australia June 2-5, 2015.

2017

The 10th meeting of the APIAP will be held in Bali, Indonsaia Apr 24-27, 2017.