News Release

Published on: September 15, 2005

College of American Pathologists Names Salt Lake City Physician Pathologist of the Year

Northfield, IL. — M. Elizabeth Hale Hammond, MD, FCAP, a pathologist from Salt Lake City, was named the 2005 Pathologist of the Year at a ceremony held at CAP ’05 – the annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists (CAP)—in Chicago on Sept. 11, 2005.

Dr. Hammond received the 2005 CAP Pathologist of the Year Award, the College's highest honor, in recognition for her outstanding leadership to the field of pathology and for her sincere dedication to improving the lives of patients.

"I am deeply humbled to be named ‘Pathologist of the Year," said Dr. Hammond, a pathologist at LDS Hospital with Intermountain Health Care, as well as a professor of pathology and adjunct professor in internal medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. "I feel privileged to be recognized for doing something I love."

Dr. Hammond is commended for her services as current chair of the CAP Education Committee and for her commitment to ensure that CAP educational opportunities fulfill the College vision. In addition, she is recognized as a member of the National Meeting Planning Committee. Previous CAP positions include service as Cancer Committee chair and as a CAP governor from 2000-2003. She has also served on several committees, including the Council on Government and Professional Affairs and the Council on Scientific Affairs.

Named among the "Foremost Women of the Century," Dr. Hammond has been applauded for her accomplishments on numerous lists, including "Notable American Women" and "Best Doctors in America." She is an expert in cardiac transplantation pathology and in predictive cancer factor evaluation and has published 160 original articles related to these research interests. She is the current and past recipient of numerous grant awards for her research studies.

Dr. Hammond is a member of numerous professional organizations and has held leadership positions in many of them. She was the past president of LDS Hospital Medical Staff, the Utah Society of Pathologists and the Society for Diagnostic Ultrastructural Pathology. She is the past vice chair of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group for Translational Research. She is a current trustee of Intermountain Health Care and chair of the Tissue Bank for Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. She serves on several national committees related to her research and professional interests and is a member of both the Group Banking Committee and the Program for Evaluation of Clinical Cancer Tests (PACCT) of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Hammond graduated magna cum laude with a BS degree and received her MD with cum laude distinction, both from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. She interned at University Hospital in Salt Lake City and was a postdoctoral fellow for the U.S. Public Health Service (National Cancer Institute) at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Hammond completed her residency and immunopathology research training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was named diplomate of the American Board of Pathology in 1974. She was an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and received a Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society for her research work in immunopathology. She returned to Utah in 1977 to work in pathology at LDS Hospital (Intermountain Health Care) and the University of Utah School of Medicine. She was chair of pathology at LDS Hospital for many years and currently serves as the Medical Director of the Office of Research for Intermountain Health Care.

The College of American Pathologists is a medical society that serves nearly 16,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout the world. It is the world’s largest association composed exclusively of pathologists and is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance. The CAP is an advocate for high quality and cost-effective patient care.