November 2009
Feature Story

Kevin B. Dole, MD, was presented Oct. 11 with the Pathologist of the Year Award during an evening event at the CAP ’09 annual meeting in National Harbor, MD. Sixteen others received awards at separate annual meeting events at the Gaylord National Resort.

Dr. Dole was honored for his strong leadership of the CAP Council on Membership and Professional Development and for his other contributions to the CAP spanning more than two decades. He helped establish the College as The Pathologists’ Organization by increasing member market share of junior members and fellows to record levels.

In addition to serving as chair of the council, Dr. Dole served on the CAP Board of Governors for six years and chaired the CAP Government Affairs Committee and the Ad Hoc Inquiry Committee. He also was vice chair of the Compensation Committee, the Council on Public Affairs, and the Government Affairs Committee.

Dr. Dole is medical director at Caritas Medical Laboratories and director of pathology and laboratory at Carney Hospital, both in Boston. He is also the laboratory director at Dedham (Mass.) Medical Associates and an associate clinical professor of pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Steven I. Gutman, MD, received the Distinguished Service Award for promoting and protecting public health through clear and consistent regulation of in vitro diagnostic devices as director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Device Evaluation and Safety at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. In his role as director, he helped to advance the specialty of pathology and patient care by fostering the rapid transfer of new, effective IVDs into the medical market, while preventing the marketing of unsafe or ineffective devices.

Dr. Gutman is professor of pathology at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando. In this role, he is working to develop the pathology curriculum as a founding member of a new medical school.

Michael L. Talbert, MD, was given the Outstanding Service Award for his work on the Practice Management Committee. His efforts consistently add value to the practice management resources available to College members and reflect his perspective as an educator, pathology advocate, and practicing pathologist.

Dr. Talbert serves also on the CAP Nominating Committee and the Council on Education, and he chairs the Graduate Medical Education Committee.

Dr. Talbert is chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and chief of pathology services at OU Medical Center. He also serves as director of the pathology house staff training program at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Jonathan L. Myles, MD, received the Public Service Award—the College’s highest honor for accomplishments and dedication to political and civic life and to public service in the United States. He was recognized with this award for his advocacy on behalf of the College and the specialty of pathology in gaining approval of the CAP pathology quality measures for breast and colon cancer reporting used in the 2009 CMS Physician Quality Reporting Initiative.

Dr. Myles is a national leader in pathology payment policy. He serves as the pathology advisor to the AMA Relative Value Update Committee and is a member of the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement AMA-Pathology Work Group. Dr. Myles is vice chair of the CAP Economic Affairs Committee and a member of the Spokespersons Network and Public Affairs Committee.

After completing combined residencies in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Cleveland Clinic in 1987, Dr. Myles joined the faculty of the Medical College of Ohio where he achieved the rank of associate professor before being recruited back to the Cleveland Clinic in 1993. Dr. Myles has served in a variety of roles in its Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, including anatomic pathology education coordinator, director of the autopsy service, director of histology and the surgical pathology desk, and most recently as director of quality assurance.

Alfred E. Hartmann, MD, received the Laboratory Improvement Program Service Award for his many contributions to the College, beginning in 1975 when he was a member of the Product Evaluation Subcommittee. In subsequent years he went on to chair the Chemistry Resource and the Standards committees. He further supported the College through service on the Laboratory Planning and Design, Surveys, and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Resource committees.

Dr. Hartmann is a clinical professor of laboratory medicine emeritus at the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. He is a pathologist at Physicians Laboratory, Ltd. in Sioux Falls, where he was president for 14 years.

Robert R. Rickert, MD, was given the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program Service Award for his outstanding service to the Laboratory Accreditation Program, beginning in 1976 when he became the Middle East regional commissioner and state commissioner in New Jersey. He later became vice chair of the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation and the program’s first overseas commissioner.

Dr. Rickert recently retired as chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ, the department he served for more than three decades. He is clinical professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the New Jersey Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.

Patrick L. Fitzgibbons, MD, received the Distinguished Patient Care Award for his involvement in developing and implementing the CAP/ASCO HER2 testing guidelines.

Dr. Fitzgibbons has served as a member of numerous CAP committees and as chair of the Surgical Pathology, Immunohistochemistry, and Histotechnology committees. He is a member of the International Union Against Cancer Expert Panel on TNM Staging for Breast Cancer and an expert medical reviewer for the medical board of California. He has served on the pathology and oncology work groups for the AMA Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.

Dr. Fitzgibbons is a clinical assistant professor of pathology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles, and has been on staff at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., for 21 years and at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles for 11 years. Dr. Fitzgibbons chairs the Pathology Clinical Service at St. Jude Medical Center. He also served as director of the Department of Pathology at Good Samaritan Hospital.

Sandra B. Grear was honored as Outstanding Communicator for her professional communications leadership in working with pathologists to raise the image of pathologists and pathology. She is CAP vice president of membership and professional development.

Grear has initiated and directed numerous College programs, including MyHealth TestReminder.org; CAP See, Test and Treat; the “If It Weren’t for My Pathologist…”advertising campaign; NewsPath; and the award-winning MyBiopsy.org Web site. She continues to lead the College’s communication efforts through satellite media tours, desk-side editorial meetings, hometown radio interviews, video news reports, podcasts, and social networking—to elevate pathologists’ visibility with patients, other clinicians, and others whom pathologists must influence.

Stephen S. Raab, MD, was honored, with the CAP Foundation Lansky Award, for his accomplishments in outcomes research, productivity systems, and patient safety related to anatomic pathology. Dr. Raab was also recognized for his research in laboratory- and hospital-associated errors, evidence-based quality programs, and systems improvement.

Dr. Raab has been recognized not only by the CAP but also by the CDC, the Institute for Quality in Laboratory Medicine, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institutes of Health, and other governmental and not-for-profit foundations.

Dr. Raab is director of anatomic pathology, director of cytopathology, and vice chair of quality at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Aurora.

Ronald M. Harris, MD, MBA, received the CAP Foundation Humanitarian Grant Award, with which he will purchase medical equipment and supplies to improve the quality of HIV/ AIDS screen­ing and testing for residents of Kenya. The grant award will make it possible for Dr. Harris to purchase a real-time polymerase chain reaction instrument, CD4 reagents, HIV ELISA reagents, and PCR primers.

Dr. Harris helped to establish the Comprehensive Care Center in Nakuru, Kenya, with grant support from the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative in 2005. He is associate professor in the departments of dermatology and pathology and associate vice president for health sciences diversity, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City.

James M. Crawford, MD, PhD, was honored with the Resident Advocate Award for leading the recent efforts of academic pathology to reform the application process for subspecialty fellowships in pathology and laboratory medicine. Nominations for this award are made by a CAP junior member. The CAP Residents Forum Executive Committee reviews and selects the candidate with the approval of the Board of Governors.

Dr. Crawford is chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and senior vice president for laboratory services, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Manhasset, NY.

Six CAP members were honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards for their contributions to one or more areas of the CAP over an extended period. They are:

Kathleen G. Beavis, MD, for her years of service on the Microbiology Resource Committee, the Safety Committee, and the Council on Scientific Affairs.

Dr. Beavis served as member and chair of, and consultant to, the FDA Advisory Panel on Microbiology Devices and as a member of the American Board of Pathology’s Microbiology Test Committee.

Dr. Beavis is chair of the divisions of microbiology and virology at Stroger Hospital of Cook County in Chicago. She has held several academic positions, including that of visiting clinical associate professor in the pathology departments at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

Thomas L. Williams, MD, for his service to the Chemistry Resource Committee, the Publications Committee, the Education Committee, and the Project Management Team.

Dr. Williams is chair of the Department of Pathology and medical director of the Pathology Center at Nebraska Methodist Hospital, Omaha, as well as laboratory director at Physicians Clinic in Omaha and Glenwood Resource Center in Iowa. He is a clinical assistant professor of pathology at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine.

Dina R. Mody, MD, for her leadership on the Cytopathology Committee, having served as its chair and vice chair during her 11 years as a member. Dr. Mody was honored also for her contributions to the Cancer Committee, which she served as an advisor; the Anatomic Pathology Cluster, which she served as chair; and the editorial board of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.

She was the 2007–2008 president of the American Society of Cytopathology.

Dr. Mody is a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She is also director of cytology at The Methodist Hospital, Houston, and director of the cytology laboratory at Obstetrical and Gynecologic Associates, Houston.

John H. Eckfeldt, MD, PhD, for his years of service on the Ligand, TDM/ Endocrinology, Chemistry, Instrumentation, Standards, Biochemical/ Molecular Genetics, and ISO 15189 committees, as well as the Commission on Clinical Pathology and Council on Scientific Affairs. He served as the chair of the Standards Committee, co-chair of the Standards/Instrumentation Committee, and vice chair of the TDM/ Endocrinology Committee.

Dr. Eckfeldt holds the Ellis Benson endowed professorship at the University of Minnesota Medical School in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, for which he is also vice chair for clinical affairs. In addition, he has an active research program and directs biochemical and genetic testing for numerous national, multicenter studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

Seth L. Haber, MD, for his some 35 years on the Publications Committee and six years on the Membership Committee. Dr. Haber wrote the “Innovations in Pathology” column for more than 35 years.

Dr. Haber was the founding chief of pathology at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara, Calif., for 35 years, until his retirement in 1998. During that time, he was an elected member of the Permanente Medical Group board of directors for nine years. He served as director of clinical research and as director of medical education at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals in Northern California.

Dr. Haber has been on the volunteer clinical teaching faculty at Stanford University for 30 years, with the rank of full professor since 1987. In June of this year, the University of Chicago honored him with its Distinguished Service Award.

Grover M. Hutchins, MD, for more than 20 years of service as a chair and member of and advisor to the Autopsy Committee. In addition, Dr. Hutchins was honored for his contributions to the Forensic Pathology Committee, the National Autopsy Data Bank Ancillary Committee, the Anatomic Pathology Committee, and the Commission on Anatomic Pathology.

Dr. Hutchins is a professor of pathology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a visiting pathologist at the Baltimore VA Medical Center.

He has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including Autopsy Journal, Modern Pathology, Cardiovascular Pathobiology, and American Journal of Cardiovascular Pathology.