Two Pathology Trainees Win USCAP Awards

At the 2023 USCAP annual meeting, which was held from March 11-16 in New Orleans, two pathologists-in-training were honored prestigious awards.

Lanny DiFranza, a renal pathology fellow, received the Stowell-Orbison Award for his abstract poster presentation titled: “The Significance of Receiving a Kidney from a Black Donor; Looking Below the Tip of the Iceberg” (Authors: Lanny DiFranza, Emily Daniel, Dominick Santoriello, Ali Syed Husain, Ibrahim Batal). Dr. DiFranza completed his residency training in Anatomic & Clinical Pathology at NewYork Presbyterian-Columbia University Irving Medical Center in 2022, and is the renal pathology fellow in the Department of Pathology & Cell Biology for the current academic year, ending in June 2023. 

The Stowell-Orbison Awards are presented by USCAP, and are awarded to trainees who are currently residents or fellows in pathology. This award recognizes the pathologists-in-training who present the best research work through the medium of a poster presentation at the USCAP Annual Meeting. The decision is made by members of the USCAP Stowell-Orbison Awards Committee, and is based on the complexity of the work, the amount of time dedicated to the project, the novelty of the findings, and the suspected impact of these findings for improving patient care and medical knowledge. 

Maelle Saliba, a PGY2 resident, received the Association of Directors of Anatomic and Surgical Pathology Award for her abstract titled: “Delineating Invasive Mucinous Adenocarcinomas (IMA) Within the Spectrum of Pulmonary Adenocarcinomas with Mucinous Features (PAM): Refinement of Cytomorphologic Features and Correlation with Genomic Profiles” (Authors: Maelle Saliba, Michelle Garlin Politis, Mahesh Mansukhani, Helen Fernandes, Anjali Saqi) 

The Association of Directors of Anatomic and Surgical Pathology (ADASP) and the USCAP co-sponsor the Surgical and Autopsy Pathology Awards, to pathologists-in-training for the best posters on a morphology-based surgical pathology study and on autopsy material, respectively, presented as part of the Stowell- Orbison competition. Applicants may win either of these awards alone, or they may win them in addition to a Stowell-Orbison Award. Eligibility is the same as for the Stowell-Orbison abstracts. 

Congratulations to Dr. Difranza and Dr. Saliba on their outstanding achievements!