Pathology Informatics 2012, October 4–7 | APII and LabInfoTech Summit Presents Pathology Informatics 2012

Faculty

All Conference Faculty

Ulysses J. Balis, MD

Associate Professor and Informatics Director, Division of Pathology Informatics

Department of Pathology

University of Michigan Health System

Ann Arbor, MI

ulysses@umich.edu

Session:

Beyond LEAN and Conveyor Belts: What's Next in AP Automation?

New Approaches to LIS Connectivity

The NextGen LIS: Who Will Build It and What Will It Look Like?

Dr. Balis received dual B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Biology from Duke University in 1987. He attended medical school at the University of South Florida and was awarded an M.D. in 1991. He completed residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of Utah during the period 1991-1996, followed by postdoctoral fellowship training under the Whitaker Foundation B.E.R.E. Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard University Health Sciences and Technology Program (1996-1998), with continued research in tissue engineering at Harvard's Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital during the period 1996-2000.

Dr. Balis is the recipient of several awards including the Lansky Award from the College of American Pathologists (2000) for his efforts with establishing a DICOM image object descriptor (IOD) for use with digital microscopy; Award for best ultrastructural abstract from the Society for Ultrastructural Pathology at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Annual Meeting (2003) and the award for best Scientific Session on Imaging Informatics at the 2004 APIII meeting. He has presented a number of Keynote Presentations including the Australian Pathology Information Technology World Symposium (2003); Pathology Update Meeting, Australian Royal College (2005) and Current Update in Telepathology, Provincial Laboratory Coordinating Office, British Columbia, Canada (2005).

Dr. Balis was the Founding Medical Director of the Core Instrumentation and Image Processing Laboratory for Associated Regional and University Pathologists, Inc. (ARUP), and served as Director from 1992-1996. He also served as Assistant Medical Director for the Flow Cytometry Clinical Laboratory for ARUP from 1993-1996. In 2000, Dr. Balis joined the faculty of the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School as an Instructor, and was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor in 2002. He served as Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Services at Shriners Hospital for Children, Boston Burns Unit (2000-2006), and was the Director of Pathology Informatics at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2000-2006. He also served as Acting Chief Information Officer, at Shriners Hospital from 2004-2005.

Dr. Balis is a member of numerous professional societies including the Association for Pathology Informatics of which he was a founding member, served as Vice-President and is currently President-Elect. While at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), he developed and implemented a barcode tracking system for Anatomic Pathology Workflow. This patent is held by MGH. Dr. Balis has numerous publications in peer reviewed journals and has served as an invited speaker nationally and internationally in the area of informatics.

In 2006, Dr. Balis joined the faculty of the Department of Pathology as Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Informatics in the Division of Pathology Informatics.

Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD

Chairman

Department of Biomedical Informatics

University of Pittsburgh

Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Pathology and Information Science and Telecommunications

University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine

Pittsburgh, PA

becich@pitt.edu

Session:

Time for a National Pathology Consulting and Esoteric Testing Network?

Dr. Becich is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Informatics (http://www.dbmi.pitt.edu) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is jointly appointed in Pathology, Information Sciences/Telecommunications and Clinical/Translational Research. He is Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (http://www.upci.upmc.edu/) and Co-Director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (http://www.ctsi.pitt.edu) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Becich obtained his MD and a PhD in Experimental Pathology from Northwestern University, and served as a staff anatomic pathologist after completing his pathology residency at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO). At the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine he founded the nation's first Pathology Informatics fellowship program and the Advancing Practice Instruction and Innovation through Informatics (APIII) conference which now has been renamed as Pathology Informatics 20XX (http://www.pathinformatics.pitt.edu). In 2000, in partnership with Bruce Friedman, MD, he help co-found the Association for Pathology Informatics (http://www.pathologyinformatics.org). He is a member of 14 professional societies and has contributed to over 150 papers as well as several on-line presentations. He is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists and the American College of Medical Informatics.

Dr. Becich's research interests are focused on the interface between clinical informatics imaging informatics and bioinformatics. His research is funded by the NCI, NCRR, NLM, CDC, TATRC and the DOD and includes clinical phenotyping of patients for genomic studies, tissue banking informatics and bioinformatics with a special emphasis on data sharing. Dr. Becich is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Omnyx (http://www.omnyx.com) and has been an innovator and entrepreneur in the area of whole slide imaging and digital pathology and their use in improving patient care and patient safety. A complete online profile including bibliography is available at http://www.dbmi.pitt.edu/person/michael-j-becich-md-phd.

His current research focuses on developing applications and databases to automate clinical annotation of tissues utilized in high throughput genomics and proteomic analyses. This program focuses on creating data mining and data warehousing tools for data derived from DNA based microarrays, tissue microarrays, tissue bank information systems, clinical information systems, clinical trials data and imaging repositories that currently exist in the Pathology department and Cancer Centers program. His laboratories are well-funded including grants from the National Cancer Institute, National Center for Research Resources, National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Agency for Healthcare Quality, Department of Defense (Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Command) as well as corporate sponsored research programs.

Several good examples of the innovative research include the National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank for Translational Research (NMVB), the Facebase Management and Coordination Hub (FaceBase) and the Gynecologic Cancer Translational Research Center of Excellence (GynCOE).

NMVB has created and maintains a national virtual patient registry and research resource bank and proposes to expand their innovative resources through a cooperative working group that broadly shares their mesothelioma research tools. The NMVB database is used for clinical and outcomes data collection related to each research resource (serum, plasma, tissue, pleural effusions, tissue microarrays, whole slide images, proteomic/genomic data and other resources.

The FaceBase goal is to establish a data management and coordination hub focused on identifying genes and/or environmental contributors to complex traits such as cleft palate. A complementary team of multiple principal investigators and consultants will use a combination of thoughtful epidemiology, family collections, careful phenotyping including high resolution imaging, high throughput genotyping, robust statistical strategies, comprehensive studies of gene expression and epigenetics and characterization of animal models.

GynCOE hopes to develop improved strategies for the early detection, prevention and treatment of gynecologic cancer by increasing our understanding of the molecular aberrations associated with gynecologic carcinogenesis and the biologic mechanism(s) underlying the influences of hormones and other epigenetic influences on cancer risk. Collection, preparation and evaluation of tissue specimens from gynecologic cancer patients will be supported through a multi-institutional Tissue and Data Acquisition Core. Data sharing and analysis for all investigative activities will be supported by the GYN-COE Bioinformatics and Biostatistics

Michael D. Feldman, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Pathology

Director, Pathology Informatics

University of Pennsylvania Health System

Assistant Dean for IT

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Philadelphia, PA

feldmanm@mail.med.upenn.edu

Session:

Quantitative Histocytometry

Bruce A. Friedman, MD

Active Emeritus Professor

Department of Pathology

University of Michigan Medical School

President

Pathology Education Consortium

Ann Arbor, MI

friedman@labinfotech.com

Session:

Integration Goals for Pathology: An Intra- and Inter-Specialty Agenda

Organizational and Political Aspects of Lab Information Management

John R. Gilbertson, MD

Associate Chief

Deparment of Pathology

Director of Pathology Informatics

Massachusetts General Hospital

Associate Professor

Havard Medical School

Boston, MA

GilbertsonJR@gmail.com

Session:

Standards, Validation and Regulation: Relevance for Digital Pathology

The NextGen LIS: Who Will Build It and What Will It Look Like?

Metin Gurcan, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Biomedical Informatics

College of Medicine

Ohio State University

Columbus, OH

metin.gurcan@osumc.edu

Session:

Introduction to HIMA

J. Mark Tuthill, MD

Division Head, Pathology Informatics

Henry Ford Health System

Detroit, MI

mtuthil1@hfhs.org

Session:

Electronic Document Management System for the Laboratory Product Line

Web-Based Order Entry Portal in Support of Outreach Testing

FACULTY

Course Directors

Course Co Directors

Pathology Informatics Overview Workshop Director

Faculty

Association for Pathology Informatics Travel Awards will provide awards up to $1,800 for conference attendees.

Find out if you qualify »

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).

Learn More »

Pitt Home | School of Arts and Sciences | Find People