Pathology on the Internet

On Sept. 5th, 2000, the Department of Pathology became part of a consortium of six universities that announced the launching of a new Internet service, UPCMD.COM. Through UPCMD.COM, University Pathology Consortium, LLC, a for-profit corporation, will provide medical information to the module "Disease Diagnosis," which is a part of a web site allowing rapid access to nearly 15,000 pages of original information about diagnostic medical testing and diseases.

University Pathology Consortium has contracted with medical professionals throughout the country to improve patient care, according to Kenneth L. Sims, M.D., the consortium’s CEO and professor and chairman of pathology at Creighton University. The site is designed to be an authoritative medical resource assisting clinicians when they need to look up information during a patient visit. Rather than simply positing textbook content, the authors are providing original material that will be updated as developments occur.

The information is available on an annual subscription basis. In addition to "Disease Diagnosis," other forthcoming products include "Evaluating Abnormal Test Results" and "Diagnostic Medical Testing in Psychiatric Disorders." A comprehensive module, "Transfusion Medicine," will also soon be completed and offered initially to large health-care organizations and hospitals only. Additional services will be directed toward pathologists who specialize in the diagnosis of cancer using tissue sections and individual cell preparations such as the pap smear.

UPS was formed and is directed by departments of pathology and laboratory medicine at Creighton University, Stanford University, the University of California at Davis, the University of California at San Francisco, The University of Iowa, and the University of Southern California. The Department of Pathology’s participation in the consortium was enabled by the UI Research Foundation, which has become a formal member of the UPC.

For more information about the consortium contact Ken Sims, M.D. (402) 449-4967,
ksims@upcmd.com, or Michael Cohen, M.D. (319) 335-8232, michael-cohen@uiowa.edu.

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Pathology Outreach Expands

The Pathology Referral Program (Outreach) continues to expand under the direction of Eric Cook, M.T., M.B.A., with the creation of Client Services, a new position designed to meet the burgeoning demands of the outreach program.

Client Services, located on the 6th floor of the Roy Carver Pavilion (Rm. 6237, Tel. 319-384-7212), was created to assist our outreach clients with clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology service issues ranging from specimen collection requirements to receiving test results. This unit is staffed 12 hours per day, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the convenience of our clients.

The new position of Client Services Representative (CSR) was created to meet the growing needs of our outreach clients. Jeanine Beranek, a 20-year veteran of pathology, has been hired to fill that role. Jeanine, a former Clinical Laboratory Scientist, started in May of this year and has been steadily handling her new responsibilities as a CSR as she "learns the ropes" in client servicing issues.

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New Faces in the Department

We have recently hired new faculty and administrative staff, and there have been several personnel changes within the Department as well. In addition, new housestaff started in July. Please join me in welcoming them to the Department!

New Faculty

Barry DeYoung, M.D.
Associate Professor and
Director of Surgical Pathology

Barry is a well-rounded surgical pathologist with subspecialty interests in orthopedic and ENT pathology. His research efforts focus primarily on the diagnostic and prognostic value of immunohistochemistry. Barry received his M.D. from Georgetown University in 1991 and then completed his post-graduate medical training in anatomic pathology at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Virginia, where he was a surgical pathology fellow. He was a faculty member at Ohio State University in Columbus for five years, where he also directed the immunohistochemistry laboratory.




Mark Bowman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology
and
Director of the Clinical Laboratory
Sciences (Medical Technology) Program

At present, Mark’s chief interests include recruiting and retention strategies for clinical laboratory science students and employees. Mark earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida College of Medicine while studying the etiology of type 1 diabetes. He has published in various major journals, including Immunology Today, Diabetes, and The New England Journal of Medicine. For the past four years, he served as faculty and assistant program director of the University of West Florida Medical Technology Program in Pensacola, Florida.



Pamela Roberts, B.S., MT
Clinical Laboratory Sciences Program
Faculty

Pamela joined the Clinical Laboratory Sciences program as a chemistry/instrumentation lecturer. After graduation from The University of Iowa’s Medical Technology Program in 1979, Pamela has worked in the Special Chemistry Laboratory at UI Hospitals and Clinics for eight years. During the following seven years, she performed method evaluation studies for the Chemistry Laboratory at UI Hospitals and Clinics as well as beta site evaluations for companies selling clinical laboratory instruments and reagents. For the last six years, Pamela was a lead scientist in the Chemistry section of Pathology, with emphasis in the areas of therapeutic drug monitoring, toxicology, and immunoassay testing.

New Appointments

Thomas J. Waldschmidt, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology has been appointed as Director of Graduate Training Programs.


Mary S. Stone, M.D.
Associate Professor of Dermatology and Pathology has assumed the directorship of the dermatopathology service.


New Administrative Staff

Jean O’Malley, MHA, M.S., B.S., M.T. (ASCP)
Assistant to the Chair

At the end of October, Jean will be joining the Department as Assistant to the Chair, succeeding Bonnie Rubin. Jean has over twenty years of experience as an administrative director at University Laboratories of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Maryland Medical Center. She also has had experience working in industry (Technicon), in a reference laboratory and in research.


Anne Suter, BGS, MA
Grants and Contracts Administrator

Anne Suter was recently hired to serve as the research administrator for the Department. Her duties will include pre-and post-award activities for research grants and contracts as well as assisting investigators with regard to University policies and procedures and in the identification of funding opportunities. Anne has worked as a research assistant in Dentistry and as a unit and research administrator in Research Services Administration, a section of the Office of the Vice-President for Research.


New Residents

Amani A. Bashir, M.D.
1st year resident in Pathology; Medical School: Jordan University, 1998; Internship: Jordan University Hospital, 1998-1999. Training Goals: Amani is in a combined AP/CP Program.

Richard A. Galbraith, M.D.
1st year resident in Pathology; Medical School: Medical College of Ohio, 2000; JD: Ohio State University College of Law, 1992; MBA: Ohio State University College of Business, 1992. Training Goals: Rich is in a combined AP/CP Program.

Kevin A. Kurtz, M.D.
1st year resident in Pathology; Medical School: University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2000. Training Goals: Kevin is in a combined AP/CP Program.

Melinda M. Racz, M.D.
1st year resident in Pathology; Medical School: Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical University, Szeged, Hungary, 1999; Diploma Qualifying for University Studies (Abitur): Ungarisches Gymnasium, Secondary School, Kastl, Germany, 1984-1991.
Training Goals: Melinda is in a combined AP/CP Program.

Kathleen D. (Maben) Siechen, M.D.
1st year resident in Pathology; Medical School: Oregon Health Sciences University, 2000; MS in medical and molecular genetics: Indiana University, 1991-1995. Training Goals: Kathy is in a combined AP/CP Program.

Stephen J. Plumb, D.O.
2nd year resident in Pathology; Medical School: Nova Southeastern University, 1999; Internship: Florida Hospital East Orlando, 1999-2000; Post-Sophomore Fellowship in Pathology: University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1996-1997. Training Goals: Steve is in a combined AP/CP Program.

Kimberly A. Monnin, M.D.
5th year resident in Surgical Pathology; Medical School: University of Texas at Houston, 1996; Resident AP/CP Pathology: University of Utah, 1996-2000; MS: University of Arizona, 1991. Training Goals: Kim is a Surgical Pathology Fellow 5th Year Resident.


New Fellows

Terri W. Crook, M.D.
Fellow in Cytopathology; Medical School: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, 1995; Resident: AP/CP Pathology, University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, 1995-2000.

Nadeem Zafar, M.B., BS
Fellow in Hematopathology; Medical School: Dow Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan, 1985; Fellow in Cytopathology: University of Tennessee at Memphis, 1996-1997; Resident Pathologist: University of Tennessee at Memphis, 1993-1996; Resident Pathologist: University of Texas at Houston, 1992-1993; Postgraduate Trainee in Pathology: Dr. Ziauddin Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, 1986

Archie Ray Traynor Jr., DO, MBA
Fellow in Transfusion Medicine; Medical School: University of Health Sciences, Kansas City, 1968; MBA: Rollins College-Crummer School of Business, 1999; CP Residency: National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, 1972-1974; AP Residency: University of Maryland, 1970-1972; Rotating Internship: Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, 1968-1969


House Staff and Fellows who Have Changed their Positions

Andrew C. Henke is a Cytopathology Fellow
Michele L. Cooley is a Surgical Pathology Fellow (4th year Resident)
Marc A. Dvoracek is a Surgical Pathology Fellow (5th year Resident)
Eric C. Stevens is a Surgical Pathology Fellow (5th year Resident)

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The Department of Pathology is accepting applications for various faculty positions.

Clinical Laboratory Sciences Faculty Member

Director of Molecular Genetics Laboratory

Faculty Position in Clinical Chemistry

Faculty Position in Tumor Immunology

Faculty Position in the area of Apoptosis

Faculty Positions in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology

Head of Diagnostic Virology and Molecular Infectious Disease

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Virtual Microscope

Working with MicroBrightField, Inc., Fred R. Dee, M.D. and Tim Leaven, M.A. have developed the technology to digitize entire glass slides (~1 GB of information/slide) and deliver them over the web. By accessing these virtual slides, a standard web browser with a viewer plug-in can nearly perfectly emulate a real microscope.

Virtual slides created with this emerging technology have recently been introduced into the Histology and Pathology courses here at UI College of Medicine. The digitized slides can be accessed by students from any computer on campus, or off campus using a cable modem. Faculty can project virtual slides in lecture rooms and laboratories.

Student acceptance is very good. A formative evaluation was carried out in the Histology course last spring. Students rated the virtual microscope equal or superior to the regular microscope and glass slides in terms of efficiency, clarity of image, navigation, accessibility, and efficiency of learning. One medical student commented: "This virtual process can be so much more productive for students, and more stimulating also." Although students felt that the virtual microscope was significantly superior in terms of efficiency and accessibility, they did not uniformly believe that the real microscope should be completely replaced.

Virtual slides are created with a Leitz microscope equipped with a video camera and Ludl motorized stepping stage. Acquisition software from MicroBrightField tiles together up to 1,200 contiguous 40x images from a single glass slide into a giant ~1GB image. This image is compressed to ~100MB and stored on a server from which selected ~100K fields of view are accessed using a standard web browser and a viewer plug-in. The viewer allows zooming through 5 levels of magnification and navigation in an x–y plane at any level of magnification.

Because this technology also has applicability outside the classroom for CME and web based publishing of atlases and textbooks, it has the potential to revolutionize the way we visualize and distribute microscopic slides and images.

A demonstration can be viewed at www.medicine.uiowa.edu/pathology/uarep_histopathology/