October 2012
Feature Story

Andrew E. Horvath, MD, was named CAP Pathologist of the Year and Michael P. Sedrak, MD, CAP Resident of the Year during the CAP ’12 annual meeting last month in San Diego. The College presented 16 other awards and the CAP Foundation bestowed five.

Dr. Horvath was honored for his service in developing and strengthening the CAP’s strategies and for his leadership in integrating the practical implications of transformation for pathologists and in guiding improvements in the overall governance and management of the College.

Dr. Horvath is with Presbyterian Healthcare Services, TriCore Reference Laboratories, and the University of New Mexico Hospitals, Albuquerque. He is a clinical professor in the Department of Pathology and Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Dr. Horvath also serves on the board of directors for TriCore Reference Laboratories.

Dr. Horvath served as a CAP governor for six years. He is serving now on the Transformation Program Office Steering Committee, SNOMED Terminology Solutions Venture Council, and the Council on Government and Professional Affairs. He had served as a member of the Council on Laboratory Accreditation, Council on Scientific Affairs, and the SNOMED International Authority.

Dr. Sedrak was honored for his work in support of the Pathology Resident Wiki, a contribution by a resident for the benefit of an entire profession.

Dr. Sedrak is a third-year resident at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston. He is a member of the Residents Forum and serves as the lead member of the Wiki Action Group. Dr. Sedrak also serves as the University of Texas Medical Branch liaison to the Young Pathologists Section of the Texas Society of Pathologists.

Dr. Sedrak has presented at state and national meetings, including the American Society of Dermatopathology. He wrote a research manuscript on herpes infections, published recently (Dermatol Online J. 2012 [Aug.15];18[8]:6).

Dr. Sedrak received a Bachelor of Science degree from Baylor University in Waco, Tex., and a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Texas Medical School, Houston.

Other awards presented were as follows:
Distinguished Patient Care award, to Robert J. Penny, MD, PhD, for his scientific translational research to accelerate the adoption of molecular pathways and associated therapies into the fields of pathology and oncology.

Dr. Penny is cofounder and CEO of the International Genomics Consortium in Phoenix, Ariz. While at the IGC, he began the nationwide Expression Project for Oncology (expO), which provides a free public gene expression database of 2,000 cancers with clinical outcomes for translation. The National Institutes of Health cited expO’s success as critical in deciding to launch The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a national project to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Dr. Penny was awarded the Principal Investigator for the Biospecimen Core Resource for TCGA and a separate award for TCGA’s Tissue Source Site network.

Also while at the IGC, he founded the Molecular Profiling Institute and served as its first CEO and chairman of the board. Dr. Penny’s vision was to bring to surgical pathology a holistic, evidenced-based, integrated molecular pathway analysis with accompanying therapies provided by pathologists for oncologists. He developed the Molecular Profiling Institute’s portfolio of molecular testing and pharmaceutical services, which includes his commercially available holistic genomic analysis of cancer with its surgical oncology report (Target Now) that matches molecular mechanisms with oncology therapies. The approach was validated in a 2010 Journal of Clinical Oncology article on the prospective clinical trial of molecularly directed therapy.

Dr. Penny is an expert in the translation of diagnostics into patient care and in creating biorepositories. He has established two national esoteric reference medical laboratories, a national tissue bank and analysis center, and a national genomics program to help accelerate the translation of new diagnostics.

Outstanding Service award, to Louis D. Wright Jr., MD, for his contributions to raising the College’s awareness of the role of technology in driving the transformation of pathology and for his dedication to the College’s movement toward becoming a force in personalized medicine.

Dr. Wright is the founder of Pathology Service Associates, a provider of business services to more than 90 independent pathology practices in 33 states. He was the director of a large pathology practice company for nearly 40 years, from 1967 to 2005, serving health care systems in two states. He is an emeritus board member at McLeod Health in Florence, SC, where he was director of laboratory services for more than 25 years.

Dr. Wright is an immediate past CAP governor, and he chaired the Council on Government and Professional Affairs and the Personalized Health Care and Diagnostic Intelligence and Health Information Technology committees. He served as co-chair of the Molecular Pathology Working Group.

Distinguished Service award, to William L. Roberts, MD, PhD, posthumously, for his contributions to pathology.

Dr. Roberts was chair of the Chemistry Resource Committee at the time of his death (see page 90). He was immediate past president for the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, where he also served as the organization’s president-elect and secretary-treasurer. He was an active member of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry.

Dr. Roberts was a professor of pathology, with a scholarly emphasis in chemical pathology, at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He also served as the medical director for core laboratory and the chemistry group at ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City, where he was also assistant medical director for the biochemical genetics laboratory.

Dr. Roberts was an author of numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, a reviewer for many journals, and a member of the editorial boards of Clinical Chemistry and Clinica Chimica Acta. He was recognized by the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists with the Evans Award in 2006 and the Young Investigator Award in 1992 and 1994.

Public Service award, to Susan E. Spires, MD, for her dedication to political and civic life and to public service in the United States.

The CAP honored Dr. Spires for her expertise in payment issues and her many continuous years of service as the CAP representative for pathology on the American Medical Association Relative Value Scale Update Committee.

Dr. Spires is an associate professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, and medical director of laboratories at UKHS Good Samaritan Hospital.

Dr. Spires is a member of the CAP Economic Affairs Committee. She has also served in the House of Delegates and on the Strategic Planning Committee.

Outstanding Communicator award, to Barbarajean Magnani, PhD, MD, for her positive portrayal of the pathologist and pathology in leading by example the transformation of the specialty.

Dr. Magnani, pathologist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center and professor of pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine, is internationally recognized for her expertise in laboratory medicine, specifically in clinical chemistry and toxicology. She has presented numerous workshops and seminars in the field and has received two outstanding speaker awards from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and a recognition award for significant service from the Massachusetts Poison Control Systems in Boston. She has served as the member-at-large of the AACC therapeutic drug management and toxicology division and as an editor of Clinical and Forensic Toxicology News. She is the former chair of the CAP’s Toxicology Resource Committee and is currently a member of the Council on Scientific Affairs. She has hosted three See, Test and Treat programs at Tufts.

Dr. Magnani is the author of Lily Robinson and the Art of Secret Poisoning (nVision Press), and she is one of the editors of The Clinical Toxicology Laboratory: Contemporary Practice of Poisoning Evaluation (AACC Press) and Clinical Toxicology Testing: A Guide for Laboratory Professionals (CAP Press).

Resident Advocate award, to Betsy D. Bennett, MD, PhD, for her dedication to graduate medical education and her contributions to and support of pathology residents.

A renowned educator, Dr. Bennett parlayed her skills honed during many years as an academic and a pathologist to spearhead the American Board of Pathology, of which she has been executive vice president for the past nine years.

Dr. Bennett served as chair, vice chair, and member of the CAP Patient Preparation and Specimen Handling Editorial Board and as a member of the Publications Committee. She chaired the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Pathology Residency Review Committee.

Laboratory Improvement Program Service award, to John C. H. Steele Jr., MD, PhD, for his many years of service to the CAP Council on Scientific Affairs. Most notably, Dr. Steele was instrumental in responding to the H2N2 adversity, offering a technique for proficiency testing customers to destroy the materials in a safe and thorough manner. Later, he served as a resource when the CAP, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Public Health Laboratories, launched the Laboratory Preparedness Exercise program.

Dr. Steele was chair of the CAP Microbiology Resource Committee and a member of the CAP’s Quality Practices Committee. He received the College’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

Dr. Steele is a Walter L. Shepeard professor of pathology and CLIA laboratory director at Georgia Health Sciences University, Augusta. He twice served as interim chair of pathology and is the current chair of the pharmacy and therapeutics committee at Georgia Health Sciences University Medical Center.

Dr. Steele serves now on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology and as section editor of Clinical Laboratory Management (ASM Press). He was a member of the microbiology test development and advisory committee of the American Board of Pathology.

Laboratory Accreditation Program Service award, to Jay F. Schamberg, MD, for his support, service, and leadership of the Laboratory Accreditation Program for more than 35 years.

Dr. Schamberg is director of laboratory services at West Allis Memorial Hospital, Milwaukee, Wis. In September 1995, he accepted a position as vice president of laboratory services for Aurora Health Care, an integrated health system serving eastern Wisconsin. His responsibilities included integrating hospital and clinic laboratories with 900 employees and 31 pathologists into a single laboratory organization. In May 2000, he became general manager of ACL Clinical Laboratories, a partnership between Advocate Health Care in Chicago and Aurora Health Care. In 2007, he accepted the position of vice president of medical operations for the Metro Region of Aurora Health Care.

Dr. Schamberg was a CAP governor from 2003 to 2011. In 2011, he accepted a position as senior medical advisor for the CAP’s international program focusing on China.

Excellence in Teaching award, to John R. Goldblum, MD, for his expertise in anatomic pathology and his consistently high ratings for effectiveness as a three-time faculty leader at the CAP annual meeting.

Dr. Goldblum is chairman of the Department of Anatomic Pathology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He is a professor of pathology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Goldblum specializes in the interpretation of biopsy and resection specimens in the fields of soft tissue pathology and gastrointestinal pathology for Cleveland Clinic and non-Cleveland Clinic patients throughout the United States and foreign countries. He is the co-author of the world’s largest selling textbooks on soft tissue tumors and gastrointestinal pathology. He has lectured extensively nationally and internationally in the field of anatomic pathology, and he has published more than 275 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Goldblum served on the CAP Surgical Pathology Committee.

Excellence in Teaching award, to Michael Laposata, MD, PhD, for his expertise in coagulation and his consistently high rating for effectiveness as faculty for the CAP annual meeting during the past several years.

Dr. Laposata is the Edward and Nancy Fody professor of pathology and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is the executive vice chairman of the school’s Department of Pathology, pathologist-in-chief at Vanderbilt University Hospital, and director of clinical laboratories. He was a member and vice chair of the CAP Coagulation Resource Committee.

Dr. Laposata’s clinical expertise is in the field of blood coagulation, with a special expertise in the diagnosis of hypercoagulable states. He implemented a system whereby a physician with expertise in the area systematically interprets and generates a patient-specific narrative paragraph on the clinical laboratory data in coagulation and other areas of laboratory medicine. This service is essentially identical to the service provided by physicians in radiology and anatomic pathology, except that it involves clinical laboratory test results. For this innovation, Dr. Laposata was recognized in 2005 by the Institute of Quality in Laboratory Medicine of the CDC.

Dr. Laposata is the recipient of 14 major teaching awards at Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His recognitions include the 1989 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, a teaching prize with competition across the entire University of Pennsylvania system; the 1998 A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School; election to the Harvard Academy of Scholars in 2002 and to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Teaching in 2009; and the highest award (by vote of the graduating class) for teaching in years one and two at Harvard Medical School in 1999, 2000, and 2005.

Excellence in Education award, to D. Robert Dufour, MD, for his expertise and contributions in the planning, development, and delivery of the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program curricula. Dr. Dufour has been instrumental in numerous clinical pathology and education offerings, including the laboratory preparatory sessions at the Clinical Laboratory Management Association, audioconferences, and the CAP self-assessment modules.

Dr. Dufour is consultant in pathology and hepatology at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, DC, and an emeritus professor of pathology at George Washington University. He has received numerous educational awards, including the 1999 Outstanding Contributions in Education award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Dufour is now vice chair of the CAP Accreditation Education Committee, a member of the Clinical Pathology Education Committee, and state commissioner for Washington, DC.

Lifetime Achievement award, to Patricia A. Devine, MD, for her broad and positive impact on the pathology profession through contributions to one or more areas of the College over an extended period.

Dr. Devine is now an advisor to the CAP Reproductive Medicine Resource Committee, of which she previously served as chair and as a member. In addition, she served as a member of the Hematology and Clinical Microscopy Resource Committee.

Dr. Devine is medical laboratory director, Imugen Laboratory, Norwood, Mass.

Lifetime Achievement award, to John K. Duckworth, MD, for his contributions to the College and the specialty.

Dr. Duckworth was a CAP governor from 1987 to 1993. He chaired the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation and was vice chair of the Commission on Inspection and Accreditation, for which he also was the Gulf regional commissioner. In addition, Dr. Duckworth was a member of the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation and Standards, and in 1982 he was the recipient of the CAP Outstanding Service award.

He served on numerous councils and committees, among them the Council on Quality Assurance, the CAP/Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals Working Group, and the CAP/Health Care Financing Administration-Centers for Disease Control Working Committee. Dr. Duckworth also was chair of the Council on Practice Management. He served as president of the Tennessee Society of Pathologists and the Memphis Society of Pathologists.

Most recently, Dr. Duckworth was director of the pathology residency program and a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, Memphis. He also served as a consultant to the Methodist University Hospital, Memphis. Dr. Duckworth is the founder and president of the Duckworth Pathology Group.

Lifetime Achievement award, to Cynthia L. Foss-Bowman, MD, for her contributions to the College and pathology.

She is immediate past chair of the CAP Point-of-Care Testing Committee. In that capacity she guided the introduction and acted as senior editor of a Web-based POC testing toolkit. Dr. Bowman has written and edited multiple educational pieces for the laboratory community as part of the CAP EXCEL and Surveys programs. She is a member of the House of Delegates and the CAP Checklists Committee. She has served as vice chair and member of the CAP Government Affairs Committee. Dr. Bowman serves now on several Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute document development committees.

She is medical director of Enzo Clinical Labs, a full-service commercial reference laboratory in New York.

Lifetime Achievement award, to Jeffrey A. Kant, MD, PhD, for his broad and positive impact on the profession through contributions to one or more areas of the College over an extended period.

Dr. Kant is professor of pathology and human genetics and director of the Division of Molecular Diagnostics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he directs fellowship programs in molecular genetic pathology and clinical molecular genetics. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an appointed member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee.

Dr. Kant has devoted himself to translating discoveries in molecular pathogenesis into the clinical laboratory to benefit patients and physicians and to establish the field of clinical molecular diagnostics broadly. He lectures widely on economic and policy issues relating to molecular diagnostics. He was instrumental in the formation of the Association for Molecular Pathology in the early 1990s and served as the AMP’s first president and in numerous other capacities, and he was the inaugural recipient of the AMP Leadership Award in 2005. Within the CAP, Dr. Kant is immediate past chair of the CAP/ACMG Biochemical and Molecular Genetics Resource Committee, vice chair of the Council on Scientific Affairs, and member of the Economic Affairs and Personalized Health Care committees, as well as the laboratory-developed test and next-generation sequencing workgroups. (Editor's note: We are sorry to report that Dr. Kant died Sept. 30.)

Lifetime Achievement award, to Diane L. Persons, MD, for her broad and positive impact on the profession through contributions to one or more areas of the College over an extended period.

Dr. Persons chaired the CAP/ACMG Cytogenetics Resource Committee and the Molecular Pathology and Genetics Cluster. She also served as a member of numerous councils and committees, among them the Council on Scientific Affairs, the Molecular Pathology Resource Committee, and the Molecular Oncology Resource Committee. Dr. Persons is on the editorial boards of Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science and Cancer Genetics.

Dr. Persons is a professor and director of the cytogenetics laboratory, University of Kansas Medical Center. She has also served as director of the pathology residency program over the past several years.

The CAP Foundation presented the following five awards:

Gene and Jean Herbek Humanitarian award, to Bradley M. Linzie, MD, the first recipient of this newly created award. The Foundation honors Dr. Linzie for his leadership in providing outstanding direct patient services to individuals in underserved communities through the See, Test and Treat program. He has hosted six programs at NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center in Minneapolis since 2005.

Dr. Linzie is an attending pathologist and medical director of the surgical pathology department at Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis. He is chair of the medical center’s medical staff quality committee, which performs peer-review and performance improvement activities.

Active in the University of Minnesota pathology residency program, Dr. Linzie is a clinical instructor and the site coordinator for the three-month anatomic pathology rotation. He is president of the Twin Cities Society of Pathologists.

Leadership Development award, to Melissa Austin, MD, for her continued desire to gain exposure to the critical issues facing pathologists at the local, state, and national levels and for her aspiration to participate in the development of health care policy in the coming years. Dr. Austin recognizes that each of the national organizations representing pathologists has a different perspective and approach to advocacy, and seeing these often-complementary approaches in a holistic context is of critical importance to her and, she believes, those interested in health care policy.

Dr. Austin is an anatomic and clinical pathology resident at the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle. Prior to her residency, she completed a transitional intern year at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Dr. Austin also served as the Group Medical Officer for the Commander, Naval Surface Group, Middle Pacific, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In addition, she was a chemistry instructor for the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School in USAFA, Colorado.

Leadership Development award, to Feriyl Bhaijee, MD, for her interest in learning about the policies that influence health care in the United States and meeting residents from other programs and policymakers who shape and influence the specialty of pathology.

Dr. Bhaijee is a third-year resident in the anatomic and clinical pathology residency program at the University of Mississippi, Jackson. She earned a combined bachelor of medicine degree and bachelor of surgery (MBChB) degree, graduating with distinction in clinical examinations, from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. While there, she completed two special study modules in anatomic pathology. She also participated in a two-year rotating internship in internal medicine, surgery and trauma, and obstetrics at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. She completed a four-week elective in gastrointestinal pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Bhaijee is the junior member of the CAP Cancer Committee and a member of the CAP Spokespersons Network.

Leadership Development award, to Oleksandr Kryvenko, MD, for his extracurricular work and engagement in activities that extend outside the usual scope of his job responsibilities, such as his involvement as a resident with pathology organizations at the state and national levels.

Dr. Kryvenko is a clinical and research fellow in genitourinary pathology in the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He is a member of the CAP Risk Management Committee and of the College’s Spokespersons Training Program. Dr. Kryvenko is a member of the International Urology and Nephrology editorial board and an ad hoc reviewer for other journals.

Leadership Development award, to Shelley I. Odronic, MD, for her dedication to and involvement in leading, teaching, and mentoring in the promotion and improvement of pathology.

Dr. Odronic is one of the chief residents in the anatomic and clinical residency program at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She is the junior member of the CAP Continuing Compliance Committee and a member of the Residents Forum. Dr. Odronic also is a member of the education integration team and a class representative on the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute education committee of the Cleveland Clinic.

Before joining the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Odronic was a teaching assistant at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, where she taught first-year medical students introductory microscopy and normal histology. While there, Dr. Odronic founded and served as president of the Pathology Society, an organization that provides opportunities for medical students interested in pathology.