Goldfinger to Receive ASCP Philip Levine Award

Dennis Goldfinger, MD, will receive the Philip Levine Award for Distinguished Service at "Pathology Today™: The ASCP Annual Meeting," in San Antonio on October 9. This award recognizes researchers who have made a significant contribution to molecular pathology, immunohematology, and immunopathology. The award honors the late Philip Levine, MD, who made many distinguished contributions to clinical medicine, including determining the etiology of Rh hemolytic disease of the newborn. Levine was director of Ortho Diagnostic Systems, co-sponsor of the award.

Dr. Goldfinger is Director Emeritus of Transfusion Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, where he has worked since 1972. Goldfinger earned national and international acclaim for his groundbreaking work related to frozen blood, autologous blood, directed donor programs and therapeutic apheresis. He has authored more than 100 scientific articles for peer-reviewed publications and more than 30 book chapters. He is also a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Clinical Apheresis.

Although widely renowned for his clinically oriented blood bank research, Dr. Goldfinger has published a number of papers with a basic science/pathophysiology focus. "He has published 2 of the top articles on acute hemolytic transfusion reactions due to ABO incompatibility, stressing the role of inflammatory mediators," said Janice M. Nelson, MD, FASCP. "He was also one of the first investigators to show Rh-negative immunocompromised patients rarely develop anti-D after receiving Rh-positive platelets. He is an eternally forward thinker who is light years ahead of his time."

Goldfinger received his MD from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1967. He interned at Cornell University Hospitals from 1967 to 1968, then served as a resident in anatomic pathology at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1969, he moved to Bethesda, MD, to complete a clinical pathology residency at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He served as clinical associate for the NIH Blood Bank from 1969 to 1971.

Dr. Goldfinger first became involved with ASCP during his time at NIH. "I attended the annual meeting in Chicago in 1969 and assisted in conducting a wet workshop on immunohematology," said Dr. Goldfinger. "The collegiality of working together with physicians and medical technologists in my field is always a high-point of ASCP meetings."

Board certified in clinical pathology and transfusion medicine/blood banking, Dr. Goldfinger is a fellow of the College of American Pathologists. He has held various leadership positions with the American Association of Blood Banks, California Blood Bank Society, Los Angeles County Medical Association, and the Los Angeles Society of Pathologists. He has also been an advisor to the United States Food and Drug Administration, California Department of Health, the Leukemia Society of America, and the American Red Cross.

Dr. Goldfinger is a Clinical Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is a respected educator and recipient of 2 Golden Apple Teaching Awards from Cedars-Sinai (Department of Pathology & Department of Medicine).

"Teaching laboratory physicians and medical technologists—and instilling in them a desire to conduct original research—is something of which I'm extremely proud," said Goldfinger.