The Association for Pathology Informatics presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Liron Pantonwitz, MD at the 2019 Pathology Informatics Summit in Pittsburgh, PA. The presenter was Dr. Monica E. de Baca.
Dr. de Baca received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Iowa State University of Science & Technology, then her medical degree from Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She completed a residency in Anatomic & Clinical Pathology and a fellowship in Hematopathology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She is board certified in Anatomic & Clinical Pathology and in Hematopathology. Dr. de Baca‘s interests lie in structured disease reporting, healthcare data management, laboratory interoperability and decision support and quality issues.
Dr. Liron Pantanowitz graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and completed his residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, in Boston. During his career at Tufts University School of Medicine, Baystate Medical Center, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Dr. Pantanowitz achieved regional, national and international recognition as a leader in the pathology field. Currently, he is Vice Chair of Pathology Informatics, Professor of Pathology & Biomedical Informatics, Director of Cytology, and Director of the Pathology Informatics Fellowship at UPMC.
Dr. Pantanowitz is a co-founder and co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pathology Informatics alongside Dr. Anil Parwani. Along with Dr. Parwani, Dr. Pantowitz has dedicated nearly a decade towards establishing API‘s official journal, the Journal of Pathology Informatics (JPI). He helped to position JPI as an internationally recognized open access peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the advancement of pathology informatics. Aligned with API‘s mission to promote the field of pathology informatics as an academic and a clinical subspecialty of pathology, JPI publishes cutting edge research performed in the field of pathology informatics to promote scientific research and informatics education.
In 2013, Dr. Pantanowitz served as API president and continues to support the digital pathology committee of the College of American Pathology and the Digital Pathology Association board of directors. His research interests include cytopathology and informatics. His informatics interests lie at the intersection of informatics and digital pathology. He spearheaded landmark clinical guidelines for promoting adoption of digital pathology and developing a national pathology informatics curriculum.
Dr. Pantanowitz is widely published in the field of pathology informatics including digital imaging and its application to pathology. His dedication to merging diagnostic pathology to education has proven his significance to the future of the field. We are grateful for his contributions and ongoing work and, thus, honor Dr. Liron Pantanowitz with API‘s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award.
