FOCUS ON FACULTY to pathology but there’s also an art in communicating the reports to the clinicians,” he explained. “Your goal is to provide a consult service to help clinicians and guide their management, so I try to emphasize that non-medical nuance.” In June of this year, he received the Chair’s Award for his “fantastic contributions to his various services during a pandemic and during an acute shortage of personnel.” On the research front, Jean-Gilles has collaborated with colleagues in Radiology and Urology in translational research
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projects and hopes to do more Cytology related work in the near future. Outside of work, he and his family enjoy being outdoors, playing sports, and family board games. He is also an avid solo board game player – a niche hobby that’s grown in popularity during quarantine. Games like Anachrony and Robinson Crusoe offer a healthy alternative to video games. “It has problem solving and makes you read more,” he said. “I always want to read more, and this allows you to read while scratching that puzzle-solving itch.”
RESEARCH NEWS SYMPOSIUM PUTS DATA-DRIVEN WORK ON DISPLAY Recently, I have been part of a conversation with my heard from keynote speaker, Dr. James Kirkland, an colleagues about the value of a new type of testing that expert gerontologist and longtime researcher into the is being debated. Some believe the new test is valuable biology of aging. Among several highlights, Dr. Kirkland’s and should be employed post-haste, while others believe talk reminded us of the importance of rigorous clinical that further study is warranted and the test’s clinical trials in assessing the value of interventions in diseases of utility needs to be better established before it’s used as a aging, an area where untested “wellness” approaches are diagnostic tool. These conversations have been a reminder sometimes held up as having value despite a lack of data of why we do research – to establish whether a hypothesis, to back up such claims. however logical and reasoned it may be, has true validity During the symposium, we also heard about the in real-world practice. research being conducted by our residents On that backdrop, I want to highlight alongside their clinical training. Dr. a new publication in the New England Bennett Wilson won first place honors Journal of Medicine that challenges current for his assessment of “Negative Urine practice in the field of platelet transfusion. Cytology and the Rate of Diagnostic Corresponding author and Transfusion Agreement between Cytotechnologist Medicine Director, Dr. Neil Blumberg, and Cytopathologist…,” which argued along with Associate Director Dr. Majed that there may be an appropriate role for Refaai, PGY-2 resident Dr. Andrew cytotechs in signing out negative urine Cardillo and collaborators at URMC testing. Dr. Chauncey Syposs received demonstrate that the UMRC practice of an award for his work on “Differential both leukoreduction and ABO matching Expression of DLL3 in Merkel Cell of platelets dramatically reduces the need Carcinoma Primary Tumors and for HLA-matched platelets as compared Metastases,” a study of the Notch pathway to rates in the published literature. These receptor Delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) in Helene McMurray, Ph.D. data will hopefully influence practice, these cancers. Finally, Dr. Cardillo took which will benefit patients who require platelets by both third prize for his informatics-oriented work on “Inincreasing the likelihood that an unmatched platelet Silico Testing: Accurately Predicting Results of the Direct transfusion will provide support and by limiting the Antiglobulin Test using Commonly Available Lab Data.” number of patients who cannot successfully receive We applaud the important contributions to the platelet support due to the lack of matched products. biomedical literature from Drs. Wilson, Syposs, Cardillo Kudos to Dr. Blumberg and his co-authors for doing the and all of our trainees and their mentors. As bestwork to demonstrate the value in their approach and for expressed by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, “Without data, pushing for improvement in current practice. you’re just another person with an opinion.” The value of research was also highlighted at our recent Pathology Research Day symposium, wherein we
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