On 16th May, 2006, a one day "ESTP Education Meeting" was held in AstraZeneca, Alderley Park, UK. This meeting provided a unique forum for a core number of representative pathologists involved in education thoughout Europe to discuss (a) external courses or conferences currently available for veterinary and toxicological pathologists in training and potential areas of resource sharing or consolidation and (b) examples of European residency training programmes and their ability to provide the type of pathologist which the pharmaceutical industry requires. The attendees were Wolfgang Kaufmann (President-ESTP), Catherine George (ESTP, ¹SFPT representative), Jenny McKay (ESTP), Monique Wyers (ECVP, Nantes Veterinary School) Bob Thoolen (ESTP, ²CRPTP representative), Noel Downes (³BSTP), Chiara Brachelente (ECVP, Bern Veterinary School), Sionagh Smith (Edinburgh Veterinary School), Michele Ardizzone (ESTP, ⁴SIPTS representative) and Anja Kipar (⁵ECVP/ESVP Summer Schools in Veterinary Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Liverpool). During the morning session, Jenny McKay presented an overview of Veterinary Pathology and Toxicologic Pathology courses occurring between 2003-2006 in Europe and Switzerland, based on individual course details that had been supplied by all attendees.

A number of interesting findings emerged which are pertinent to those involved in running courses or modules. One which most of us were probably aware of already was the obvious occurrence of most topics or courses in the third quarter of every year. There has also been a steady increase in the number of courses taking place between 2003 and 2006 with 17 topics already known of for 2007. Although there was some overlap of courses with regard to subject matter and timing, the ensuing discussion highlighted the difficulty of comparing "like with like" courses as most courses tend to either be for trainees or as CPD for fully qualified professionals. The length and scope of coverage of particular topics may therefore overlap but may be aimed at specific target audiences. Interestingly, the number of Laboratory Animal and Toxicologic Pathology courses currently available appears to be adequate with courses occurring every quarter. This was of particular note as a recent questionnaire submitted to ESTP trainees had shown that 70% of respondees agreed or strongly agreed that there should be more courses in Toxicologic Pathology. It was also noted that training courses and the provision of mock exams for preparation for both the ECVP and MRCPath now occur once per year. Based on these findings, the meeting participants overwhelmingly supported the view that better communication between organising bodies and planning of courses well in advance would reduce the likelihood of overlap and would be of benefit both to those involved in organising courses and those attending. Actions arising from this part of the meeting were that the Trainees' page on the ESTP website should be a source of up-to-date information of forthcoming courses relevant for trainees and that a course guide with particularly relevant courses to those intending to sit examinations should be on this site as well. This should provide a valuable source of information for both trainees and those providing courses and ESTP members should see changes to the Trainees' page on our website by the end of 2006! The development of these ideas to also include a searchable database by course topic for trainees is still under ESTP consideration. It was also decided that all participants at our May meeting should remain in regular contact (quarterly by e-mail) in order to keep track of courses occurring in the various countries and societies and thus begin the process of building wider communication, collaboration and sharing of expertise between course organisers.

In the afternoon session, there was a discussion of European and Swiss Residency Training programmes, including the ECVP/ESVP Summer School in Veterinary Pathology and the current funding situation at representative universities. Catherine George also presented an update on the ⁶ACVP/STP Coalition for Veterinary Pathology Fellows as based on current information from Gary Cockerell, Director of the Coalition. Briefly, the Coalition provides a unified mechanism for ACVP and STP to solicit and allocate funds to establish training positions in reponse to the current and continued projected shortage of well trained veterinary anatomic and clinical pathologists. There are currently six new funded veterinary pathology positions in the USA with two further positions pending. The coalition principally obtains funding from the pharmaceutical industry but other potential coalition sponsors would include chemical companies, contract research organisations, private diagnostic laboratories, governmental organisations and health and education foundations. Whether such a coalition would be feasible in Europe remains an item for continued thought. The situation of funding of Residents in Europe is variable with individual pharmaceutical companies perhaps supporting one veterinary residency training programme (e.g. in Hannover) or more frequently, funding trainees when a shortage in staff is anticipated. Of course, the option to train in-house also exists although this is time-consuming and may not provide the broad wealth of knowledge required for the increasingly varying roles required of veterinary pathologists in industry. The feasibility of a venture akin to the ACVP/STP coalition in Europe leaves much to discuss due to diversity in company approaches and adverse experiences from some company-academic liaisons. However, much debate on the undoubted efficiency and benefits which the ACVP/STP Coalition has to offer will no doubt remain a talking point and should certainly require further investigation! Nevertheless, in the short term our actions from this session were to (a) define the shortfall of toxicological pathologists predicted in Europe (b) define the number of accredited residency programmes in Europe, their current capacity and also their possible capacity if funding was increased. We aim to obtain this information by early 2007.

In conclusion, I feel this was a worthwhile meeting with plenty of frank open discussion. The benefit of gathering educational representatives from both academic and pharmaceutical backgrounds, a number of countries and from both large Pharma and CROs certainly provided a diverse collection of views and opinions and was, I hope, one step forward in the beginning of greater dialogue between those who train pathologists and those who recruit. If anyone is keen to follow up in more detail the output from the ESTP Education Meeting, the minutes of this meeting will be circulated to all the relevant sister societies and will be available on the ESTP website.

• ¹SFPT : French Society of Toxicologic Pathology
• ²CRPTP: Committee for the Registration of Laboratory Animal/Toxicological Pathologists in the Netherlands
• ³BSTP: British Society of Toxicological Pathology
• ⁴SIPTS: Societa Italiana Patologia Tossicologica e Sperimentale
• ⁵ECVP/ESVP: European College of Veterinary Pathologists/European Society of Veterinary Pathologists
• ⁶ACVP/STP: American College of Veterinary Pathologists/Society of Toxicologic Pathology

Jenny McKay June 2006