Feature Story

Eight of the great lauded at CAP ’03 annual meeting

Votes counted and governors seated

October
Anne Ford

Eight CAP members were honored at the CAP ’03 annual meeting in San Diego in September.

Kay Herrin Woodruff, MD, received the 2003 Pathologist of the Year Award for her leadership and commitment to serving patients through the advancement of pathology practice. Dr. Woodruff is a past member of the CAP Board of Governors and past co-chair of the Council on Practice and Education. She is a former CAP national spokesperson and former CAP state coordinator for California. Dr. Woodruff retired in 2001 from the Doctor’s Medical Center, San Pablo, Calif.

“In my 26 years of participation in the CAP, I have met hundreds of pathologists whose goal—like mine—is to do as much good as they can, all the time they can, for as long as they can,” Dr. Woodruff said. “It gives me great joy to work with these wonderful people, a joy enhanced now by this prestigious honor.”

Richard Friedberg, MD, PhD, SM, and Mark Synovec, MD, received the CAP Foundation Lansky Award for their leadership in and contributions to pathology.

Dr. Friedberg chairs the CAP Patient Safety and Performance Measures Committee. He was recognized by the College for, among other contributions, his efforts to devise and implement methods to standardize health care delivery and to identify avoidable dangers associated with elective surgery. Dr. Friedberg is chair of the Department of Pathology at Baystate Health System, Springfield, Mass., and deputy chair of the Department of Pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.

Dr. Synovec, a Laboratory Accreditation Program inspector, chairs the CAP Professional and Economic Affairs Committee and serves as a delegate to the CAP House of Delegates and the AMA House of Delegates. In presenting him with the award, the College acknowledged his commitment to laboratory excellence and health care access for the poor. Dr. Synovec is president of and associate pathologist with Topeka (Kan.) Pathology Group, P.A., and president-elect of the medical staff at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center, Topeka.

For her efforts to clarify and enhance the image of pathologists, the CAP presented Rebecca L. Johnson, MD, with the William L. Kuehn, PhD, Outstanding Communicator Award. Dr. Johnson is an instructor in the College’s “Speaking Before Groups” program and an LAP inspector. She is chair of the Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories at Berkshire Health Systems, Pittsfield, Mass., where she is also pathology residency program director and medical director of the School of Medical Technology. Dr. Johnson is also associate professor of pathology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.

The College honored Carolyn Compton, MD, PhD, with the Frank W. Hartman, MD, Memorial Award for, in part, her dedication to producing the CAP cancer protocols and creating cancer reporting checklists. Dr. Compton is chair of the CAP Cancer Committee. She is professor in the pathology department, professor of oncology, and director of the gastrointestinal pathology elective at McGill University, Montreal, and pathologist-in-chief for anatomic pathology at the university’s Health Centre hospitals.

“Ten years ago, I was invited to join the Cancer Committee of the CAP,” Dr. Compton said. “Little did I know or suspect that my involvement with the CAP would become the labor of love of my life.”

The CAP Foundation Humanitarian Grant Award was presented to A. Cesare Manetti, MD, MPH, and Rosemary Edwards, MD. The award provides members of the College with grants to fund pathology and medical services for patients in underdeveloped areas of the world.
Dr. Manetti received the grant to assist him in bringing rural laboratories in the African country of Eritrea up to modern medical standards through the Eritrean Laboratory Project. Dr. Edwards’ grant will help support the creation of a laboratory in Fondwa, Haiti.

Dr. Manetti, a retired pathologist, is past director of Northern Illinois Pathology Medical Laboratories. He is also past director of the Department of Pathology and past president of the medical staff at St. Anthony Hospital, Rockford, Ill. Dr. Edwards is a staff pathologist, chief of transfusion services, assistant chair of the Multidisciplinary Cancer Committee, and co-chair of the Laboratory Task Force for the Medically Underserved at Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh.

“Taking an active role in improving health care in the developing world not only benefits the underserved populations with whom we interact, but also those of us engaged in these endeavors,” Dr. Edwards said. “In fact, many of the challenges we have faced in Haiti have provided us with insight on ways to provide better care to underserved populations in the Pittsburgh area.”

John D. Batjer, MD, received the Major General Joe M. Blumberg Award in recognition of his service to the LAP. A past chair of the LAP, he has participated in the program since 1979. Dr. Batjer, who is retired, is a former attending pathologist at Swedish Medical Center, past medical director of Laboratory of Pathology, past director of laboratories at Washington Pathology Consultants, P.S., and former clinical professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, all in Seattle.

Anne Ford is CAPTODAY senior editor.