2025 CAP Pathology Advancement Award

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) established the Pathology Advancement Award in 2013 to recognize a person or team who demonstrates components of foresight, resolve, and untiring commitment to both evolutionary and revolutionary undertakings that advance the positioning of the pathologist in the house of medicine and the delivery of safer patient care. It recognizes efforts that are neither easy nor obvious, and the recipient will often be a change agent. 

The College of American Pathologists presents the 2025 CAP Pathology Advancement Award to Christine N. Booth, MD, FCAP, and Sana O. Tabbara, MD, FCAP. This award recognizes their outstanding contributions to cervical cancer screening through their work with the American Cancer Society’s National Cancer Screening Initiative.  

Drs. Booth and Tabbara played a crucial role in leading a cross-disciplinary team to develop laboratory standards that reflect the latest national cervical cancer screening guidelines. The updated standards reflect the latest scientific evidence while remaining practical for clinical use. The expertise and dedication of these two CAP members have strengthened the collaboration between pathology and public health initiatives, reinforcing the critical role of laboratory medicine in preventive care.

Beyond this initiative, Drs. Booth and Tabbara have been strong advocates for high-quality cervical cancer screening. Through educational outreach, they’ve helped pathologists and laboratory professionals stay current with evolving screening protocols and best practices. Their efforts have advanced the specialty's involvement in population health.

Dr. Booth and Dr. Tabbara exemplify how pathologists can lead in improving patient outcomes and public health. Their dedication to evidence-based care and cancer prevention emphasizes the CAP's mission of serving patients and pathologists while advocating excellence in medicine.  

Dr. Booth is a professor in the Department of Pathology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and the director of Regional Cytology at the Diagnostics Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Tabbara is a senior member and director of cytopathology in the Department of Pathology at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida. She also serves as the program director for the cytopathology fellowship and is a professor in the Department of Oncologic Sciences at the USF Morsani College of Medicine. 

The College of American Pathologists presents the 2025 CAP Pathology Advancement Award to Matthew G. Hanna, MD, FCAP, in recognition for his leadership in advancing pathology through digital innovation and his commitment to education and patient care.  

Dr. Hanna is an associate professor of pathology and serves as the vice chair of pathology informatics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and as senior director of AI Operations at the Computational Pathology and Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence (CPACE). In this role, he oversees digital pathology, clinical deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), laboratory automation, and management of the laboratory information system.

He has been instrumental in transforming pathology through the adoption of digital platforms and AI-driven tools. His work focuses on improving diagnostic accuracy, enhancing workflow efficiency, and delivering high-quality patient care. His expertise spans digital pathology operations, image analysis, telepathology, and machine learning validation.

In addition to his clinical role as a breast pathologist at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, Dr. Hanna has implemented decision support tools to assist in diagnosing breast pathology and biomarker quantification, which helps pathologists extract usable insights from complex data.

As an author and speaker, he’s published extensively on digital pathology and AI and co-edited the influential book Digital Pathology: Implementation in Clinical Practice with AI Applications.

Dr. Hanna serves as treasurer on the executive board of the Digital Pathology Association and holds leadership roles within the CAP, including serving as chair of the AI Committee and member of the Council on Informatics and Pathology Innovations as well as the Information Technology Leadership Committee (ITLC). His collaborative leadership style and strategic vision have made him a valued contributor to national efforts shaping the future of pathology.

Dr. Hanna is the vice chair of pathology informatics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

The College of American Pathologists presents the 2025 CAP Pathology Advancement Award to Liron Pantanowitz, MD, PhD, MHA, FCAP, in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of pathology informatics.  

A CAP member since 1999, Dr. Pantanowitz has been involved in many CAP councils and committees—including the Diagnostic Intelligence and Health Information Technology (DIHIT), Digital and Computational Pathology, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) committees. He has also served on workgroups such as Whole Slide Imaging Validation and PIE-AI, all focused on advancing informatics in pathology practice.  

Dr. Pantanowitz is co-founder of the Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents (PIER) curriculum and has played a key role in the development of CAP digital pathology guidelines.  

He also contributed to the guidelines for the validation of WSI for primary diagnostic use and quality assurance measures for quantitative image analysis of HER2 immunohistochemistry testing in breast cancer. These guidelines have gained international adoption, and were especially significant during the COVID-19 pandemic, when digital pathology enabled remote sign-out of cases.

His involvement with the CAP further includes frequent presentations at annual meetings, informatics-focused content in CAP TODAY, and content for the CAP website. He’s reviewed scientific abstracts and contributed to the CAP Pathology Resource Guides on clinical informatics and digital pathology. He is currently writing a textbook on practical applications of AI in pathology, scheduled for publication by CAP Press.  

Beyond the CAP, Dr. Pantanowitz has held key roles in organizations such as the Association for Pathology Informatics and the Digital Pathology Association. He played a key role in the American Society of Cytopathology's digital cytology recommendations, which helped with the adoption of AI-assisted Pap test screening platforms for routine clinical use.

He has authored or co-authored over 700 peer-reviewed publications, 125 book chapters, and 17 books, and has been a dedicated mentor to numerous residents and fellows. In all of these different roles, Dr. Pantanowitz has made a lasting impact on the profession.  

Dr. Pantanowitz is the chair of the Pathology Department and professor of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

The College of American Pathologists presents the 2025 Pathology Advancement Award to Rajendra S. Singh, MD, FCAP, honoring his extraordinary career and pioneering contributions to pathology education and digital pathology.

Dr. Singh’s excellence in teaching and his contributions to the specialty have earned him numerous accolades, including honors as Teacher of the Year for five consecutive years at Mount Sinai, New York and the CAP Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. An inspirational mentor to trainees, he’s a leading role model for residents and fellows in the US and internationally.  

Dr. Singh, the co-founder of PathPresenter, launched the online platform that’s transforming pathology education with more than 70,000 users in 170+ countries. The site enables easy sharing of digital slides and offers free educational resources around the world, uniting thousands of individuals in the pursuit of pathology learning, collaboration, and discovery. Dr. Singh is also leading the way to integrate AI into everyday pathology practice, pushing the field to unprecedented levels of innovation and advancement.  

In addition to his educational achievements, Dr. Singh has demonstrated exceptional leadership in dermatopathology and digital pathology. He’s served on committees for organizations such as the American Society of Dermatopathology, the American Academy of Dermatology, International Society of Dermatopathology and the Digital Pathology Association—where he also served on the board. He is the co-chair for the Digital and Computational Pathology Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO). He served as a member of the editorial board for the WHO Classification of Tumors (5th Edition) for three years contributing to multiple chapters on various Blue Books. He has also authored two textbooks-Dermatopathology for Boards and Surgical Pathology Redefined as well as an online book-Dermatopathology for Residents. He created the app-MyDermPath which is one of the most downloaded apps of dermatology.  

As a member of the CAP Digital and Computational Pathology Committee, Dr. Singh’s dedication to pathology’s future inspires and elevates the field. His lifelong commitment to advancing the specialty through education, innovation, and mentorship embodies the spirit of the CAP Pathology Advancement Award 

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