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Department of Pathology
University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine
S-417 BST
200 Lothrop Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
(412) 648-1260
v-line
Department of Pathology
Center for Pathology Informatics

   Overview   Faculty & Staff   Training   Research   Career Opportunities 

Faculty and Staff

Faculty

Gary E. Blank, PhD – Associate Professor
Director of Laboratory Informatics, UPMC Information Services Division.

Dr. Blank is Director of Laboratory Informatics, UPMC Information Services Division. His primary focus is management and development of the multi-institutional clinical laboratory information system, including programming new capabilities to support UPMC requirements. He also manages point-of-care testing at UPMC. Current projects include the development and implementation of laboratory robotics, process control, and monitoring tools suitable for managing multiple laboratories in a multiple-hospital environment. Dr. Blank collaborates with numerous clinical services across the institution in areas including electronic notification services, quality improvement and quality assurance programs, and rule-based decision support.

Current Funding (2003)

  • Department of Pathology funding
  • UPMC Information Services Division

Selected Publications

  1. Blank G. HIS Maintenance and Support, Sunquest User Group, 1999
  2. Blank G. Clinical Pathology Lab and LIS Disaster Support and Y2K Recovery Plan, Sunquest User Group, 1999.
  3. Blank G, Glodon B, Parker D, Reeves T.  Episode/event management for Revision 5.1 implementation for hospital information system interfaces monogram for Sunquest User Group, 1996.
  4. Blank G, Potter T.  Episode/event management for Revision 5.1 clinical service reporting considerations monogram for Sunquest User Group, 1995.
  5. Blank G. Informatics in clinical pathology. Proceedings of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology meeting, San Francisco, March 1994.

Dana M Grzybicki, MD, PhD - Assistant Professor

Dr. Dana Grzybicki is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Department of Pathology. She also works with Dr. Stephen Raab in the Center for Pathology Quality and Healthcare Research and is Co-Investigator on the multi-institutional project for pathology error analysis. Dr. Grzybicki's research interests focus on quality measurement and quality improvement in anatomic pathology practices and on outcomes research related to anatomic pathology diagnostic information. She also is interested in the Measurement of Preferences for diagnostic testing and the impact of non-physician providers on anatomic pathology practice. Dr. Grzybicki primarily and fundamentally enjoys teaching at all levels including undergraduates, graduate level trainees and community education projects.

Current Funding (2006)

  • RO1 HS 13321-01 (Raab), 9/01/2002-8/31/2007
    Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
    Co-investigator

    Cooperative Agreement U10/CCU324493-01, 9/01/2004-8/31/2007
    Center for Disease Control and Prevention
    Principal Investigator

    Title: Error Free Pathology Systems, 7/03-6/07 (extended for 2 years)
    Jewish Healthcare Foundation
    Co-investigator

    Title: Shining a Light of Hope on Ovarian Cancer , 7/1/2005-10/31/2005
    Shadyside Foundation
    Principal Investigator

    Title: Improving Hospital and Laboratory Safety (R13), 9/1/2005-8/31/2006
    Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
    Principal Investigator

Selected Publications

  1. Kiely SC, Grzybicki DM, Sepulveda A, Capitano M, Toborowsky EJ. Chronic Abdominal Complaints and Helicobacter pylori in a Haitian Population. J Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 2004: 15:183-192.
  2. Vrbin CM, Grzybicki DM, Zaleski S, Raab SS. Variability in Cytologic-Histologic Correlation Practices and Implications on Patient Safety. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2005 Jul;129(7):893-8.
  3. Grzybicki DM, Turcsanyi B, Gilbertson J, Gupta D, Becich M, Raab SS. Database Construction for Improving Patient Safety by Examining Pathology Errors. AJCP 2005 Oct;124(4):500-9.
  4. Raab SS, Grzybicki DM, Zarbo RJ, Meier FA, Geyer SJ, Jensen C. Anatomic pathology databases and patient safety. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2005 Oct;129(10):1246-51.
  5. Raab SS, Grzybicki DM, Janosky JE, Zarbo RJ, Meier F, Jensen C, Geyer, S. Clinical impact and frequency of anatomic pathology errors in cancer diagnoses. Cancer. 2005 Nov 15;104(10):2205-13 .

Federico Monzon, MD - Assistant Professor

Dr. Monzon is an Assistant Professor of Pathology at UMPC Shadyside and Medical Director of the Clinical Genomics Facility, a gene expression microarray facility focused on developing clinical applications of microarray analysis for cancer patients.

Dr. Monzon is involved in research projects regarding tumor profiling in prostate cancer, validation of microarrays as a clinical tool, as well as the development of bioinformatics tools for a genomics and proteomics laboratory information management system (LIMS).

Current Research:

Gene Expression Profiling of Prostate Cancer

My research focuses on identifying gene expression patterns that could "fingerprint" poor prognosis and that would allow for specific identification of the tumors with the capacity to progress would be of tremendous value in the management of prostate cancer patients. In collaboration with the University of Michigan, we have identified a gene expression signature that is predictive of recurrence in organ-confined prostate cancer patients. Our objective is validate the recurrence signature on a large sample set of individuals with organ-confined prostate cancer (Gleason scores 6 and 7) to determine if it can indeed stratify patients into clinically meaningful subclasses.

Another area of interest is the biology of metastatic prostate cancer. From our gene expression results, we have identified a series of genes that appear to be dysregulated in metastases, as compared to organ confined tumors. Our current work is to confirm the gene expression observations with qPCR and immunohistochemistry, and to investigate the role that these gene products have in the development of metastases and androgen resistance.

Clinical Application of Genomic Technologies

We have been working on assessing the reproducibility of gene expression arrays with the goal of developing standardized operating protocols (SOP) for clinical applications. We have focused on studying the effects of using different array platforms and different target preparation methods. With this work we have uncovered reproducible biases in gene expression data that need to be taken in consideration for the clinical application of this technology. We have several collaborative projects with the intent of finding application of high-throughput genomics technologies to assist in medical decision making for cancer patients.

Informatics Research

Information systems to support Molecular Pathology have lagged behind those in other areas of Pathology. Our efforts to establish requirements based on workflow modeling are a significant step towards their development. My endeavors in this area focus on the development of laboratory information systems for integration of genomics and proteomics data with other clinical and research databases at UPMC. We have been working in developing a data model that can support the evolution of these technologies into clinical applications and evaluating the need for partnering with commercial developers to achieve this goal. This work is supported by the Pennsylvania Cancer Alliance Bioinformatics Consortium grant (PCABC - Herberman/Becich Pis) and has been presented at pathology informatics meetings and an overall description of the future of genomic pathology was published as a manuscript in MedInfo (Chandran et al, 2004). More recently I became a co-investigator on an NHLBI contract grant to establish a cellular therapies laboratory at UPMC. My role in this grant is to oversee the development and deployment of an LIS for the Cellular Therapies and Stem Cell Laboratories. This work is extremely relevant to our Pathology Informatics service efforts since is serves as a model and test bed for the planned development of systems for Molecular Diagnostics and other specialty laboratories.

Selected Publications

  1. Rachael L. Collard, N. Simone Harya, Federico A. Monzon, Christoph E. Maier & Denise S. O'Keefe. Methylation of the ASC Gene Promoter is Associated with Aggressive Prostate Cancer. The Prostate (in press).

  2. A. Gologan, S. Bastacky, T. McHale, J. Yu, C. Cai, F. Monzon, R. Dhir. Age-associated changes in Alpha-methyl CoA racemase (AMACR) expression in non-neoplastic prostatic tissues. Am J Surg Pathol (in press)
  3. Ionescu, DN, Papachristou G, Schoen RE, Hedge M, Richards CS & Monzon FA. Attenuated Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. A Case Report with Mixed Features and Review of Genotype-Phenotype Correlation. Arch Path Lab Med (in press)
  4. Chandran U,.Monzon FA, Becich M and Gilbertson J. A New Pathology Biomarker Laboratory. Medinfo. 2004;2004(CD):1546. PMID: 15360375
  5. Monzon FA, Kant J, Sanders E, Bay C. Gene symbol: UBE3A. Disease: Angelman syndrome. Hum Genet. 2003 Sep;113(4):367. PMID: 12974277
  6. Hernandez-Guerrero C, Monzon-Bordonaba F, Jimenez-Zamudio L, Ahued-Ahued R, Arechavaleta-Velasco F, Strauss JF, Vadillo-Ortega F. In-vitro secretion of proinflammatory cytokines by human amniochorion carrying hyper-responsive gene polymorphisms of tumour necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1 beta. Mol Hum Reprod 2003; 9 (10): 625-629.
  7. Monzon-Bordonaba F, Vadillo-Ortega F & Feinberg RF. Modulation of Trophoblast Function by Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha: A Role in Pregnancy Establishment and Maintenance? Am J Obstet Gynecol 2002; 187:1574-80.
  8. Baron JA, Monzon F, Galaria N & Murphy GF. Angiomatoid melanoma: A novel pattern of differentiation in invasive periocular desmoplastic malignant melanoma. Hum Pathol 31 (12): 1520-1522 Dec 2000
  9. Palazzo JP, Monzon F, Burke M, Hyslop T, Dunton C, Barusevicius A, Capuzzi D & Kovatich AJ. Overexpression of p21Waf/Cip1 and MDM2 Characterizes Serous Borderline Ovarian Tumors. Hum Pathol 2000; 31:698-704.
  10. Roberts AK, Monzon-Bordonaba F, Van Deerlin PG, Holder J, Macones G, Morgan M, Strauss III JF, Parry S. Association of polymorphism within the promoter of the tumor necrosis factor-a gene with increased risk of preterm premature rupture of the fetal membranes. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 1999: 180(5): 1297-1302.

Anil Vasdev Parwani, MD, PhD - Assistant Professor

   Medical Director, Anatomical Pathology Lab Information Systems
   Fellowship Director, Pathology Informatics
   Pathology Residency/Fellowship Rotation Director, UPMC Shadyside Hospital

Dr. Parwani is a member of the Center for Pathology Informatics as well as also a member of the GU division, PUH/Shadyside . Dr. Parwani's research interests are:

  • Urological Pathology

    • Immunohistochemical markers for diagnosis of prostate carcinoma
    • Benign Mimickers of Prostate Carcinoma
    • Correlation of Histomorphological Features of Renal Cell Carcinoma with Cytogenetic and Molecular Changes.

  • Anatomical Pathology Informatics
  • Digital Imaging
  • Clinical Applications of Whole Slide Imaging
Selected Publications:

  1. Herawi M, Parwani AV, Irie J, Epstein JI. Small glandular proliferations on needle biopsies: most common benign mimickers of prostatic adenocarcinoma sent in for expert second opinion. Am J Surg Pathol. 2005;29:874-80.
  2. Zhang J, Parwani AV, Ali SZ. Hepatocyte paraffin 1 immunoexpression in esophageal brush samples. Cancer. 2005 May 25;
  3. Herawi M, Parwani AV, Edlow D, Smolev JK, Epstein JI. Glomus tumor of renal pelvis: a case report and review of the literature. Hum Pathol. 2005;36:299-302. Review.
  4. Parwani AV, Ali SZ. Retraction halos in adenoid cystic carcinoma. Diagn Cytopathol. 2005;33:95-96.
  5. Parwani AV, Smith Sehdev AE, Kurman RJ, Ronnett BM. Cervical adenoid basal tumors comprised of adenoid basal epithelioma associated with various types of invasive carcinoma: clinicopathologic features, human papillomavirus DNA detection, and P16 expression. Hum Pathol. 2005;36:82-90.
  6. Parwani AV, Stelow EB, Pambuccian SE, Burger PC, Ali SZ. Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor of the brain: cytopathologic characteristics and differential diagnosis. Cancer. 2005;105:65-70.
  7. Parwani AV, Ali SZ. Pathologic quiz case: a 52-year-old woman with jaundice and history of necrotizing pancreatitis. Primary colloid carcinoma of the pancreas. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2005;129:255-6.
  8. Parwani AV, Baisden BL, Erozan YS, Burger PC, Ali SZ. Pineal gland lesions: a cytopathologic study of 20 specimens. Cancer. 2005;105:80-6.
  9. Rogers CG, Parwani A, Tekes A, Schoenberg MP, Epstein JI. Carcinosarcoma of the prostate with urothelial and squamous components. J Urol. 2005;173:439-40.
  10. Parwani AV, Herawi M, Tsay S-H and Epstein JI. Urothelial Carcinoma with Rhabdoid Features: Report of Six Cases. Human Pathology 2006 Feb;37(2):168-72.
  11. Ho J, Parwani AV, Jukic D, Yagi Y, Anthony L, Gilbertson J. Use of Whole Slide Imaging in Surgical Pathology Quality Assurance: Design and Pilot Validation Studies. Published Online January 26th, 2006 (Available Online, Human Pathology)

Stephen S. Raab, MD - Professor

Dr. Stephen Raab is Director of Cytology at UPMC Shadyside and Professor of Pathology in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He is internationally known for his expertise in gynecologic cytology, exfoliative cytology and fine needle aspiration diagnosis, he is the co-author of Modern Cytopathology and he has published over 125 peer-reviewed articles in the medical literature. Dr. Raab is also Vice President of the Viet American Cervical Cancer Prevention Project and has been awarded the College of American Pathologists Humanitarian Award for his efforts in introducing Pap testing in developing nations. Dr. Raab currently is on the executive board of the Papanicolaou Society, is on the editorial board of three pathology journals, is the co-chief editor of the Mosby Yearbook of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. At UPMC, Dr. Raab is the Director of Pathology Quality Assurance and the Center for Pathology Quality and Healthcare Research. His research interests include patient safety, process improvement, patient preference, and pathology organizational cultures. Dr. Raab has received a grant from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation to implement a Toyota Production System Learning Line in Anatomic Pathology in order to improve process quality and efficiency and lower costs and manages a multicenter research project in patient safety and pathology error reduction funded by the AHRQ.

Current Funding: (2006)

    1. Improving Patient Safety by Examing Pathology Errors 1R01 HS13321-01
      PI 25% 2002-2007
      AHRQ

    2. Cervical Cancer Prevention in Vietnam
      PI 5% 2002-2003
      CAP

    3. Improving Patient Safety
      PI 10% 2003-2004
      Jewish Healthcare

    4. Designing Pathology Practice Guidelines
      Co-Investigator 5% 2004-2007
      Center for Disease Control

    Selected Publications

    1. Saad RS, Clary KM, Liu Y, Silverman JF, Raab SS. Fine needle aspiration of vertebral lesions. Acta Cytol 2004;48:39-46.
    2. Suba EJ, Raab SS. Papanicolaou screening in developing countries: an idea whose time has come. Am J Clin Pathol 2004;121:313-314.
    3. Grzybicki DM, Vrbin CM, Reilly TL, Zarbo RJ, Raab SS. Use of physician extenders in surgical pathology practice. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2004;128:165-172.
    4. Huynh MLD, Raab SS, Suba EJ. Association between war and cervical cancer among Vietnamese women. Int J Cancer 2004;110:775-777.
    5. Becich MJ, Gilbertson JR, Gupta D, Patel A, Grzybicki DM, Raab SS. Pathology and patient safety: the critical role of pathology informatics in error reduction and quality initiatives. Clin Lab Med 2004;24:913-943.
    6. Condel JR, Sharbaugh DT, Raab SS. Error-free pathology: applying lean production methods in anatomic pathology. Clin Lab Med 2004;24:865-899.
    7. Raab SS. Improving patient safety by examining pathology errors. Clin Lab Med 2004;24:849-863.
    8. Liu Y, Sturgis CD, Bunker M, Saad RS, Tung M, Raab SS, Silverman JF. Expression of cytokeratin by malignant meningiomas: diagnostic pitfall of cytokeratin to separate malignant meningiomas from metastatic carcinoma. Mod Pathol 2004;17:1129-1133.
    9. Dabbs DJ, Geisinger KR, Ruggiero F, Raab SS, Nalesnik M, Silverman JF; Association of Directors of Anatomic and Surgical Pathology. Recommendations for the reporting of tissues removed as part of the surgical treatment of malignant liver tumors. Hum Pathol 2004;35:1315-1323.
    10. Clary KM, Condel JL, Liu Y, Johnson DG, Grzybicki DM, Raab SS. Interobserver variability in the fine needle aspiration biopsy diagnosis of follicular lesions of the thyroid. Acta Cytol 2005;49:378-382.
    11. Raab SS, Nakhleh RE, Ruby SG. Patient safety in anatomic pathology: measuring discrepancy frequencies and causes. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2005;129:459-466.
    12. Raab SS, Grzybicki DM, Zarbo RJ, Meier F, Geyer SJ, Jensen C. Anatomic pathology databases and patient safety. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2005;129:1246-1251.
    13. Zarbo RJ, Meier FA, Raab SS. Error detection in anatomic pathology. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2005;129:1237-1245.
    14. Dhir R, Condel JL, Raab SS. Identification and correction of errors in the anatomic pathology gross room. Pathol Case Rev 2005;10:79-82.
    15. Condel JL, Jukic DM, Sharbaugh DT, Raab SS. Histology errors: use of real-time root cause analysis to improve practice. Pathol Case Rev 2005;10:82-87.
    16. Parwani AV, Raab SS. Amended report resulting from an interpretation error: a case report and review of the literature. Pathol Case Rev 2005;10:74-78.
    17. Vrbin CM, Grzybicki DM, Zaleski MS, Raab SS. Variability in cytologic-histologic correlation practices and implications on patient safety. Arch Pathol Lab Med 2005;129:893-898.
    18. Grzybicki DM, Turcsanyi B, Becich MJ, Gupta D, Gilbertson JR, Raab SS. Database construction for improving patient safety by examining pathology errors. Am J Clin Pathol 2005;124:1-10.
    19. Suba EJ, Donnelly AD, Furia LM, Huynh ML, Raab SS. Coming to terms with Vietnam. The Viet/American cervical cancer prevention project. Diagn Cytopathol 2005;33:344-351.
    20. Raab SS, Grzybicki DM, Janosky JE, Zarbo RJ, Meier FA, Jensen C, Geyer SJ. Clinical impact and frequency of anatomic pathology errors in cancer diagnosis. Cancer 2005;104:2205-2213.
    21. Nodit L, Balassanian R, Sudilovsky D, Raab SS. Improving the quality of cytology diagnosis: root cause analysis for errors in bronchial washing and brushing specimens. Am J Clin Pathol 2005;124:883-893.
    22. Raab SS, Andrew-Jaja C, Condel JL, Dabbs DJ. Improving Pap test quality and reducing medical errors by using Toyota Production System methods. Am J Obstet Gyn 2006;194:57-64.
    23. Valenstein PN, Walsh M, Raab SS. Identification errors involving clinical laboratories. A College of American Pathologists Q-PROBES study of patient and specimen identification errors at 120 institutions. Arch Pathol Lab Med (in press).
    24. Raab SS. Improving patient safety through quality assurance. Arch Pathol Lab Med (in press).
    25. Suba EJ, Murphy SK, Donnelly AD, Furia LM, Huynh MLD, Raab SS. Viet/American Cervical Cancer Prevention Project. Systems analysis of real-world obstacles to successful cervical cancer prevention in developing countries. Am J Pub Health 2006;96:47-54.
    26. Raab SS, Stone CH, Jensen CS, Zarbo RJ, Meier F, Grzybicki DM, Vrbin CM, Ohori NP, Dahmoush L. Double slide viewing as a cytology quality improvement initiative. Am J Clin Pathol (in press).
    27. Whigham P, Ilario MJ, Flanagan MB, Mauser N, Raab SS, Ohori NP. Discrepancy analysis, communication, and feedback in non-gynecologic cytopathology. Diagn Cytopathol (in press).
    28. Raab SS, Tworek JA, Souers R, Zarbo RJ. The value of monitoring frozen-permanent section correlation data over time. Arch Pathol Lab Med (in press).
    29. Raab SS, Vrbin CM, Grzybicki DM, Sudilovsky D, Balassanian R, Zarbo RJ, Meier FA. Errors in thyroid gland fine needle aspiration. Am J Clin Pathol (in press).
    30. Raab SS. Variability in anatomic pathology practice and its effect on patient outcome. Semin Diagn Pathol (in press).

    Systems Support Staff

      Pathology Informatics Systems Support Staff 
       
      Ralph Anderson Systems Analyst 
      Pat Arndt Systems Analyst 
      Jill Bacha Systems Analyst 
      Chad Baloga Systems Analyst  
      Robert Berdik Analyst/Programmer
      Jan Carney Systems Analyst 
      Lisa Devine LIS Training Coordinator
      Cynthia Gabbianelli Systems Analyst 
      Anthony Gigliotti  Systems Analyst/Web Developer
      Fang He  Academic Computing Services
      Peggy Hockswender Systems Analyst 
      Roseann Hyman Analyst/Programmer
      Anthony Kondisko  Systems Analyst
      Karen Lassige Systems Analyst 
      Frank Losos Senior LIS Analyst
      Jeffrey McHugh Systems Analyst
      Julia Michel Systems Analyst
      Anne Miller Systems Analyst 
      Rick Nestler Systems Analyst
      Mary Mueller Coordinator, Clinical Applications
      Kevin Nauman Systems Analyst
      Anthony Piccoli Manager, CoPath / Systems Analyst
      Kelli Richter Programmer
      Christina Ritchie Systems Analyst/Programmer
      Michael Sendek Project Leader
      Geoffrey Shullo Systems Analyst
      Tara Straw Systems Analyst
      Chuck Susanin Senior LIS Analyst
      Amy Woelke PC Support 
       

      Oncology Informatics Systems Support Staff
       
      Rebecca Boes Programmer
      Dean Brown Programmer
      Gary Burdelski LAN Administrator 
      Brenda Crocker Database Administrator 
      Michael Davis Programmer
      Roberta Elnyczky Systems Analyst
      Daniel Goldberg Web Communications Specialist
      Thomas Harper Programmer
      Denine Maglicco Database Administrator 
      John Milnes Database Administrator 
      Kevin Mitchell Programmer
      Ryan Mitchell LAN Administrator 
      Bob Rubin Programmer
       

      Telepathology Support Staff 
       

      		  
      Othman Abdul-Karim Programmer 
      Ishtiaque Ahmed Telepathology Systems Analyst
      Leslie Anthony Project Manager
      Jon Duboy  PC Consultant 
      Jonhan Ho Research Project Clinician
      Sharma,Anurag Systems Analyst I
      Yagi,Yukako Director, Technical Management
       
       

      Administrative Staff
       

      		  
      Bill Gross Manager, Pathology/Oncology Informatics 
      Barbara Karnbauer  Director of Operations, Pathol. /Oncol. Informatics
      Wendy Frank  Adminisrator / APIII Coordinator
      Genine Bartolotta Administrative Supervisor 
      Lucy Cafeo Administrator 
      Linda Mignogna Administrator 
       

      Cancer Registry 
       

      		  
      Sharon Winters Director, Registry Information Services
      Debbie Amigh  Cancer Registrar
      Gina Anania  Cancer Registrar
      Jennifer Christakis Cancer Registrar
      Kathy Fenlock Cancer Registrar
      Jennifer Ridge-Hetrick  Cancer Registrar
      Lorraine Ickes  Cancer Registrar
      Kelly Kitterly Cancer Registrar
      Doris Kurinko Cancer Registrar
      Sharon LaFace Cancer Registrar
      Margaret Lightfoot Cancer Registrar
      Kimberly Marks Manager, Clinical Registry Information Services
      Gail Martin  Cancer Registrar
      Sandy McGlumphy Cancer Registrar
      Mary Beth Miller  Cancer Registrar
      Jim Munizza Cancer Registrar
      Kathy Nixon Cancer Registrar
      Heidi Patterson-Orlando Cancer Registrar
      Maribel Porter Cancer Registrar
      Beverly Rozanok