ECP, Florence, another great opportunity to mix networking, work and sightseeing in a jam-packed week. “Unfortunately” there were no direct flights to Florence from Birmingham. This therefore required me to travel to Florence via Pisa the day before the conference. This allowed me to visit the iconic leaning tower, which certainly didn’t fail to impress. From there, it was a scenic 50-minute journey on a double-decker train to Florence.

The conference started on a Saturday evening with a fantastic opening ceremony. Having mostly attended smaller conferences like ECDP and ISBI, I hadn’t anticipated the sheer scale of ECP. The announcement that over 5,500 people had registered—making it the largest attendance yet—was a clear indication of the conference's growth and appeal, which was no doubt helped by the stunning location. The ceremony concluded with an unforgettable performance by Antonio Sergentone, winner of Italia’s Got Talent, and his band. The lively, 1950s-style Boogie Woogie, Rock N’ Roll, and Italian Swing performance had the entire congress clapping, singing, and dancing, as Sergentone seamlessly transitioned from playing the piano with his feet to his elbows without missing a beat. The evening wrapped up with a networking event and, of course, plenty of “free” food! It was here that I caught up with our colleagues from Histofy, including John, Navid, and Prof David Snead.

The next day was one of the most exciting for me, as it was dedicated entirely to computational pathology, with an impressive lineup of speakers. The day kicked off with a talk from Prof Faisal Mahmood (Harvard Medical School), moderated by Prof Darren Treanor (University of Leeds) and Prof Inti Zlobec (University of Bern). This was a great talk discussing the latest advances in computational pathology including foundation models, and the groups’ PathChat model. It was followed by an excellent talk by a very close collaborator of the TIA, Prof Ali Khurram (University of Sheffield). Ali’s presentation was both fascinating and inspiring — a tough act to follow, especially as my own presentation was next on the agenda.

I presented my work on AI for better risk stratification in oral epithelial dysplasia, and it was well received, with several thought-provoking questions from the audience. The day continued with an invited talk by Dr Fayyaz Minhas from TIA, titled "Casualties of Causality," which explored the biases and confounders in computational pathology deep learning models. Fayyaz’s talk was yet another highlight, generating a lot of positive feedback and discussion.

The evening session, chaired by our own Prof Nasir Rajpoot, focused on the “Next Frontiers for Computational Pathology”, followed by a stimulating panel discussion on "AI for Pathology: Hopes and Fears". The panel featured prominent figures in the field, including Prof David Snead (Histofy), Prof Jeroen van der Laak (Radbound UMC), Dr Matt Hanna (Pittsburgh UMC), Dr Bethany Williams (Leeds) and other leading researchers and pathologists. The lively debate sparked exciting discussions on the future direction of AI in pathology and the challenges ahead.

I also had the opportunity to present a poster on "A Novel Artificial Intelligence-Based Score for Assessing the Prognostic Value of Intra-Epithelial Lymphocytes in Oral Epithelial Dysplasia." Engaging with fellow researchers and receiving feedback on this work was a valuable experience, providing new insights and ideas to explore further.

No trip to Florence would be complete without indulging in some local delights, and I made sure to take full advantage of the city's fantastic food scene. Whether it was making a point to eat pizza every day or sampling the rich Chianti wine, the cuisine was as much a highlight as the conference itself. Once the conference wrapped up, I also managed to squeeze in some sightseeing. I visited iconic landmarks like Michelangelo’s statue of David, the Ponte Vecchio, and climbed the Duomo for breathtaking views of the city — an experience that was the perfect way to cap off an already memorable week.

Adam Shephard

We would like to take this opportunity to thank CRUK for funding the ANTICIPATE Project and Adam’s role in this project.

Contributions from Our Lab

Nasir Rajpoot [Chair]: “Next frontiers of computational pathology”

Nasir Rajpoot [Moderator]: “Panel Discussion – AI for pathology: hopes and fears”

Fayyaz Minhas [Invited Oral Presentation]: “Casualties of Causality: Biases and confounders in computational pathology deep learning models”

Adam Shephard [Oral Presentation]: “ODYN: an artificial intelligence-based pipeline for the prediction of malignant transformation in oral epithelial dysplasia”