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In memoriam: Harold H. Harrison, MD, PhD (1951–2018)

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July 2018—Harold H. Harrison, MD, PhD, 67, Pennsylvania state commissioner in the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program and a member of the Inspection Process Committee, died suddenly June 6 of cardiac causes.

Dr. Harrison

Dr. Harrison joined the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., in 2007 where he was director of clinical pathology and director of Geisinger Regional Laboratories. In a June 6 statement, Geisinger called Dr. Harrison an “intellectual powerhouse and a consummate clinical laboratory scientist” who “ensured excellence in clinical lab services.”
Conrad Schuerch, MD, chairman emeritus of laboratory medicine, Geisinger, describes Dr. Harrison as “warm, interesting, upbeat, sociable, and unflappable,” and says he was “brilliant in many dimensions.”

Earle S. Collum, MD, chief of staff and medical director at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, recruited Dr. Harrison to the CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program as Arizona state commissioner in 2005 when Dr. Harrison worked in Phoenix- area laboratories. He describes his colleague as friendly, optimistic, devoted to doing the right thing, and persistent. “When everyone else had completed all of the details, Harry always investigated further than the rest of us,” Dr. Collum says of Dr. Harrison’s inspection work. “If there was a question he wanted to answer, no obstacle large or small would prevent him from getting that answer.”

Leonas G. Bekeris, MD, CAP regional commissioner for New York and Pennsylvania, said it was a privilege to work with Dr. Harrison for 10 years.

“He was a very dedicated, smart, personable person,” says Dr. Bekeris, a staff pathologist at Phoenixville (Pa.) Pathology Associates. He recruited Dr. Harrison to become the central Pennsylvania commissioner when Dr. Harrison moved to Pennsylvania to work for Geisinger. “He was a perfect commissioner,” Dr. Bekeris says.

Dr. Schuerch, who hired Dr. Harrison at Geisinger, recalls immediately hitting it off with Dr. Harrison during the interview. Dr. Harrison shared his enthusiasm for statistical mathematics and his interest in analyzing clinical laboratory data, and “there was an energy in his discussion of his research,” Dr. Schuerch says.

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