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Awards, honors given for sterling service

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Philip T. Cagle, MD, was presented Oct. 13 with the Pathologist of the Year award during an evening event at the CAP ’13 annual meeting in Kissimmee, Fla. At the same event, at the Gaylord Palms Orlando, Feriyl Bhaijee, MBChB, was honored as Resident of the Year, and Si Van Nguyen, MD, received the second annual CAP Foundation Gene & Jean Herbek Humanitarian award.

Twenty-three others received CAP or CAP Foundation awards at other times during CAP ’13.

Dr. Cagle, editor-in-chief of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, is not only Pathologist of the Year but also a recipient of the Distinguished Patient Care award for his leadership in the development of consensus recommendations for lung cancer biomarkers and in the continuing development of best practices for molecular medicine.

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Dr. Cagle co-chaired the multiyear CAP Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center’s lung cancer biomarker consensus initiative. He has worked across disciplines and organizations to standardize molecular test reporting, demonstrating the pathologist’s role as the interpreter who helps guide discussions of treatment options.

Dr. Cagle is the S. Donald Greenberg chair and director of pulmonary pathology, The Methodist Hospital, Houston, and professor of pathology at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City.

In his published note of acceptance of the Pathologist of the Year award, Dr. Cagle said, “It is my distinct privilege to serve alongside so many devoted colleagues—every accomplished goal is the result of team effort. This award belongs to the team.”

Dr. Feriyl Bhaijee was honored for her dedication to the highest standards of patient care and medical student and resident education and for her achievements as a “next-generation pathologist” who represents and communicates the specialty’s value across interdisciplinary teams within her program and to the public, from patients to policymakers.

Dr. Bhaijee

Dr. Bhaijee

Dr. Bhaijee is chief resident in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). An international medical graduate with Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certification, Dr. Bhaijee completed a six-year undergraduate medical curriculum, graduating with distinction in clinical examinations to earn her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. There, her academic focus included two special study modules in anatomic pathology. Her postgraduate training included a two-year internship at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital, additional medical teaching and process improvement coursework at UMMC, and electives in gastrointestinal and liver pathology at Johns Hopkins University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has authored or coauthored 37 peer-reviewed publications and 26 abstracts presented at meetings.

Dr. Si Van Nguyen was given the CAP Foundation Gene & Jean Herbek Humanitarian award for his insight, leadership, and commitment to providing direct-patient services to women through the Foundation’s See, Test & Treat program.

Dr. Si Nguyen

Dr. Si Nguyen

A native of Vietnam who came to the U.S. as a refugee more than 30 years ago, Dr. Si Nguyen recognized early and responded often to health vulnerabilities among Southeast Asians living in the U.S. Last year he spearheaded the first See, Test & Treat in Southern California, bringing together more than 70 volunteers to screen nearly 200 women in a single day at the Nhân Hòa Comprehensive Health Care Clinic in Garden Grove. He led a second such screening on Nov. 2.

Dr. Si Nguyen is a member of Affiliated Pathologists Medical Group in Torrance. He serves as laboratory medical director for Orange County’s Huntington Beach and Garden Grove hospitals. He also provides pathology services to Cynogen, a molecular testing lab in Irvine.

Dr. Si Nguyen is a past president of the Vietnamese American Physicians Association of Southern California and is now vice president of the Vietnamese American Medical Association (VAMA). He has participated in numerous cancer screenings, surveys, and studies for the Asian community, including cervical cancer prevention projects in Vietnam, the Project Vietnam initiative of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the World Health Ambassadors Project of the VAMA.

Other awards presented were as follows:

Distinguished Patient Care award, to Marc Ladanyi, MD, for his collaborative success in developing evidence-based recommendations for lung cancer biomarkers and in the continuing development of best practices for molecular medicine.

Dr. Ladanyi

Dr. Ladanyi

Dr. Ladanyi served as one of the co-chairs of the Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center expert panel that created evidence-based recommendations for lung cancer biomarkers. He and his co-chairs led the review of the significant volume of evidence that provides the foundation for the credibility of the guideline.

Dr. Ladanyi is an attending pathologist in the Molecular Diagnostics Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he codirects the Genome Data Analysis Center, which is part of The Cancer Genome Atlas project network. In 2004, as head of the clinical molecular diagnostic laboratories at MSKCC, Dr. Ladanyi established EGFR mutation detection assays that allowed early implementation of lung cancer mutation testing, and since then the clinical laboratory at MSKCC has analyzed the tumors from more than 6,000 lung cancer patients for EGFR mutations and more than 1,000 patients for ALK fusions. Dr. Ladanyi has been a leader in recent efforts to introduce into routine practice even broader large-scale screening of patient tumor specimens for additional mutations that can be targets for new drugs.

Distinguished Patient Care award, to Neal I. Lindeman, MD, for his collaborative success in developing evidence-based recommendations for lung cancer biomarkers and in the continuing development of best practices for molecular medicine.

Dr. Lindeman

Dr. Lindeman

As a current member of the CAP Molecular Oncology Committee, he has contributed significantly to the College-wide efforts to standardize molecular testing.

Dr. Lindeman co-chaired the Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center expert panel that created evidence-based recommendations for lung cancer biomarkers. He and his co-chairs led the review of the significant volume of evidence that provides the foundation for the credibility of the guideline.

Dr. Lindeman’s leadership in developing best practices for molecular medicine, including his work on a multiorganizational team to standardize molecular test reporting, demonstrates the importance of the pathologist’s role in the high-value oncology practicing pathway.

Dr. Lindeman serves as director of molecular diagnostics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor of pathology, Harvard Medical School.

Outstanding Service award, to Teresa M. Darragh, MD, for her contributions to a standardized terminology for HPV-associated squamous lesions.

Dr. Darragh

Dr. Darragh

Dr. Darragh co-chaired, with David C. Wilbur, MD, the steering committee for the Lower Anogenital Squamous Terminology (LAST) Standardization Project for HPV-associated Lesions. This joint project with the CAP’s Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center and the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology provided consensus recommendations for unifying the terminology used to describe histopathologic diagnoses of HPV-associated squamous lesions of the lower anogenital tract. More than 40 panel members were involved in the multiyear project that resulted in a consensus conference with 35 participating organizations voting on the final recommendations. Dr. Darragh designed a logical approach to the topic, identified the barriers to implementation, and created a forum for discussing the disparate points of view. In addition, she co-chaired the work group responsible for the unification of terminology of superficially invasive cancers.

Dr. Darragh is president of the ASCCP.

Outstanding Service award, to David C. Wilbur, MD, for his contributions to standardizing cytopathology practices.

Dr. Wilbur

Dr. Wilbur

Dr. Wilbur chairs the CAP’s Technology Assessment Committee and is a former chair of the Cytopathology Committee and Anatomic Pathology Cluster. He served the Council on Scientific Affairs, Performance Measures Working Group, and Workload Recording Committee. Dr. Wilbur co-chaired with Teresa Darragh, MD, the CAP’s Pathology and Laboratory Quality Center’s steering committee to create consensus recommendations for unifying the terminology used to describe HPV-associated squamous lesions of the lower anogenital tract. He co-chaired the work group that examined the potential molecular markers for diagnosis and brought the stakeholders to consensus on this issue.

Dr. Wilbur is a former president of the American Society of Cytopathology.

Distinguished Service award, to Alfred Lui, MD, for his leadership in the successful promotion of private pathology practices and his ongoing contributions to organized pathology at the local, state, and national levels.

Dr. Lui

Dr. Lui

Dr. Lui has held multiple roles in professional societies, often simultaneously, all while developing one of the largest and most successful private practices in California. His leadership roles include service to the CAP Council on Education, Council on Membership and Professional Development, and Publications Committee. He is past president of the California Society of Pathologists, where he serves now on the CSP Education Committee.
Dr. Lui is chief medical officer and chairman of the board of Pathology Inc., an independent laboratory in Torrance. He is the cofounder of four pathology and independent laboratory companies, of which two are still in operation. In addition to Pathology Inc., Dr. Lui cofounded Affiliated Pathologists Medical Group, which has grown from a two-person group to 37 pathologists providing services to 14 hospitals and three independent laboratory locations in California, Oregon, and Arizona. Pathology Inc. is the largest independent laboratory in California with close to 400 employees and a focus on women’s health testing.

Public Service award, to Barbara A. Crothers, DO, for accomplishments and dedication to political and civic life and to public service in the United States. The College salutes Dr. Crothers’ longstanding leadership and commitment to ensuring that U.S. military personnel have access to cutting-edge pathology services and expertise.

Dr. Crothers

Dr. Crothers

A U.S. Army colonel, Dr. Crothers is the program director of the National Capital Consortium’s anatomic and clinical pathology residency program. She is also medical director of cytopathology at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Earlier, she served as a pathology consultant and chief of anatomic pathology at the 44th MEDCOM 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom and held similar posts in service to the 18th MEDCOM in Seoul, Korea.

Dr. Crothers received five U.S. Armed Forces Meritorious Service medals and two Army Commendation medals. Her clinical awards include the Roy M. Pitkin award for outstanding research in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the NCC’s Pathology Resident Teacher of the Year.

Dr. Crothers chairs the CAP’s Cytopathology Committee.

Resident Advocate award, to Samara Lingafelter, CMP, CEM, for her dedication and support of pathology residents.

Lingafelter

Lingafelter

A member of the CAP staff for more than 25 years, Lingafelter developed the strategic plan for CAP resident activities in her role as the coordinator of pathology resident affairs. The plan led to the establishment of pathology’s first organized residents section, the Residents Forum. Her work included creating bylaws, committees, program format, and content.

After the forum’s launch, Lingafelter worked as manager of medical student, resident, and young physician services. She initiated, managed, and supervised pathology resident activities within the CAP, organized and directed activities for residents serving on CAP committees, implemented actions taken at committee meetings, and represented CAP residents at other medical organizations. She is now senior manager of the annual meeting and exhibits.

CAP Foundation Leadership Development award, to Joanna Conant, MD, for her interest in the complex issues surrounding the future of pathology, her aspiration to influence local and national policies that shape the specialty, and her commitment to keeping patient well-being at the core of her clinical service.

Dr. Conant

Dr. Conant

Dr. Conant is an anatomic and clinical pathology resident at the University of Vermont College of Medicine where earlier as a medical student she received a research merit award. Dr. Conant demonstrated national initiative when her poster research presentation was named among the top three at the CDC’s Public Health Information Network Conference in 2009.
Dr. Conant serves on multiple quality improvement committees at the university’s allied Fletcher Allen Health Care and Hospital. She is a delegate to the CAP’s Residents Forum, a junior member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and American Society of Hematology, and a general member of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology.

CAP Foundation Leadership Development award, to Whitney Ann McCarthy, MD, for her interest in pursuing leadership roles to help improve pathologist residency training at the local and national levels.

Dr. McCarthy

Dr. McCarthy

Dr. McCarthy, a pathology resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has won numerous academic scholarships and in 2012 received the Stuart A. Wallace medical student award for excellence in pathology from Baylor College of Medicine, where she earned her medical degree.
She is an active member of the CAP Residents Forum and of the ASCP, Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists, and Texas Society of Pathologists. She presents her research at conferences of these societies.

CAP Foundation Leadership Development award, to Jordan A. Roberts, MD, for his focus on the future, his appreciation of the need to integrate pathology services into the changing framework of patient care, and his quest to deepen his understanding of the links between health policies, patients, providers, and pathologists.

Dr. Roberts

Dr. Roberts

He is an anatomic and clinical pathology resident at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. He presented two research poster abstracts at CAP ’13.

Dr. Roberts served as the first president of the newly formed pathology student interest group at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree.

CAP Foundation Leadership Development award, to Meggen A. Walsh, DO, for her early involvement in the specialty and enthusiasm for sharing new policy and training ideas with her colleagues and residency program leaders.

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