Media Alert—IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Gelasia Croom, 312.541.4754
CHICAGO, September 23, 2008—Susan Dentzer, one of the nation’s most respected health policy journalists, and Robert C. Gallo, a top American HIV/AIDS researcher, will be the keynote speakers at the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Oct. 16 – 19 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Dentzer recently assumed the position of editor-in-chief at Health Affairs, the nation’s leading journal of health policy. She is a decorated journalist, having reported on key health issues including nursing home reform, Alzheimer’s disease and Social Security. She has also appeared on “Nightline” and as a commentator on CNN and “The McLaughlin Group.”
Dentzer, well-known for the last 10 years she spent as the on-air health issues analyst with “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” on PBS, will offer unique perspective and vision on global health care, U.S. health policy and its effects on pathology and laboratory medicine.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Also headlining the Annual Meeting is Robert C. Gallo, a biomedical researcher involved in the science that led to the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. Gallo will address key HIV/AIDS discoveries, developments and therapies, as well as his and his colleague's efforts at the Institute of Human Virology to create an effective HIV vaccine.
Dr. Gallo and his laboratory at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) performed his groundbreaking research on HIV and an HIV blood test in the early 1980s. This work was guided by his research on the first known human retrovirus and cause of adult T-cell leukemia. Gallo’s passion in research and human virology is fueled by the memory of his sister’s illness and death from childhood leukemia in 1948.
This year’s annual meeting will also be full of discussion and information in the areas of MRSA, Pap and HPV tests, point-of-care screening, cardiac risks, and improving patient safety by reducing laboratory errors. For more details on these sessions or to register, please visit: www.ascp.org/2008annualmeeting.