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Report from 9th Annual EFCS Tutorial Chair: Prof. Luigi Di Bonito |
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Also this year, the EFCS organized a tutorial in cytopathology, which took place in Legoland Hotel, where most of the participants were staying. It was attended by 55 people from 17 different countries: Austria (1), Belgium (1), Canada (1), Croatia (1), Denmark (21), Israel (1), Italy (6), Netherland (2), Norway (5), Romania (1), Russian Federation (1), Slovenia (1), Sweden (3), Switzerland (5), Ukraine (1), United Kingdom (3), Unites States (1). Five of the Danish attendants shared their registration with other five colleagues, attending only the gynaecological or the non-gynaecological part of the tutorial, for a total of 50 participants each day, as stated in the general rules for the organization. For this reason, we could not accept other requests of participation. Speakers were from Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Of the 55 delegates, 60% were non-medical (cytotechnologists and biologists), 40% medical (pathologists, residents).
As many as 28% of the participants had attended a previous tutorial and were so satisfied that they decided to come again. The information about this tutorial reached the attendants through the EFCS website (36%), personal recommendation (30%) and advertisement from National Cytology Societies (22%). 12% did not answer to this question.
The tutorial followed the established programme, with microscope slide-based workshops and lectures. The non-gynaecological cytology took part in the first 4 days, covering soft tissue and bone lesions, liver, pancreas and biliary tract cytology, breast, thyroid, head and neck, serous effusions, urinary cytology, respiratory tract and lymph nodes. Gynaecological cytology was presented in the last 1.5 days, with slides of both conventional and liquid based cytology in all the presented topics. As usual, the Eurocytology teaching website was also presented.
As in the previous editions, on the first evening, there was a welcome cocktail offered by the EFCS to all attendants and tutors. On Wednesday evening, they were invited to visit the Home of the Vikings in Jelling, and after a guided tour in the historic site, they were offered a refreshment inside the museum. Furthermore, each day, attendants and tutors were given the possibility to visit the Legoland Park during or after the courses by asking free tickets to the local organizers.
All candidates submitted evaluation sheets on receiving their certificates of attendance. Lectures and workshops could be scored as excellent (1), average (2), weak (3) or inadequate (4). All average scores were between 1.0 and 1.9 indicating a highly successful and well-received tutorial.
Ten between lectures and workshops had more than 75% of ‘excellent’ scores and ten lecturers received a specific highlight apart in the free text comments. The percentage of ‘excellent’ scores for gynaecological and non-gynaecological cytology were 71% and 65% respectively.
Delegates (29 of 50) provided helpful free text comments concerning improvements that could be made to the workshops and timing of lectures, which the organisers will take account of next times.
The evaluations confirm another successful tutorial and reflect the high quality of the local organisation and venue, but the most important thing is that as many as 100% of the attendants wrote that they would recommend the tutorial to their colleagues. This will give us the motivation to go on.
The 10th tutorial will take place in Sweden in 2017. Details of the date and venue will be announced shortly on the EFCS website.
Luigi Di Bonito
Eminent Scientist of Pathology and Cytopathology in the University of Trieste
