Valerie A. Fitzhugh

Last updated
Valerie A. Fitzhugh
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forUsing social media to enhance pathology education
Awards2018, 2019 Pathology Power List, 2017, 2018, 2019 Golden Apple Teaching Award Rutgers, 2017 Top Five Featured Pathologist, 40 Under Forty
Scientific career
FieldsPathology
Institutions

Valerie A. Fitzhugh is an American pathologist and Associate Professor of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School as well as an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is the Chair of the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers and the Chair at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as well. Fitzhugh specializes in bone and soft tissue pathology and cytopathology and has made the Pathology Power List by The Pathologist Magazine in 2016, 2018, and 2019. She is involved in educating pathology residents and she actively uses social media as a platform for education and for improving diversity in pathology and she also studies how effective social media is at enhancing accurate communication of science and medicine.

Contents

Early life and education

Fitzhugh attended Rutgers State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick for her undergraduate degree. [1] She majored in Biological Sciences and was a Division 1 varsity fencing athlete. [2] She was the captain of the fencing team for her last two years of college, and was a four-time varsity letter winner during her time at Rutgers. [2] Her experience as an athlete inspired her to pursue medical school, initially with an interest in orthopedic surgery. [2]

In 2000, Fitzhugh received her Bachelors of Arts from Rutgers, and pursued her medical training at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School in Newark. [3] Towards the end of her medical degree, she completed an elective in forensic pathology and this inspired her to pursue a medical career in pathology instead of orthopaedic surgery. [2] She completed her medical training in 2004, and pursued her medical internship in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York. [4] In 2005, she transferred back to her medical alma mater, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School, to complete her residency training in pathology. [4] She became the Chief Resident in her third and fourth years. [3] After finishing her residency in 2008, Fitzhugh moved to New York City to complete a Fellowship in Cytopathology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine for one year. [4]

Career and research

In 2009, Fitzhugh was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). [1] In 2013, UMDNJ merged with Rutgers University and Fitzhugh's title became Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. [3] In 2014, Fitzhugh was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. [1] As an associate professor, Fitzhugh has been involved in both medical school and residency education. [1] She became the director of the pathology residency education and teaches Musculoskeletal and Integumentary Systems Courses as well as the Pathology course for Rutgers medical students. [1] As the former chair of the Committee on Curriculum, Academic Programs and Policies, Fitzhugh helped guide the structure of medical education at Rutgers. [1]

In 2018, Fitzhugh was appointed to Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. [3] In 2020, she was promoted to Interim Chair for both the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School and for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. [3] She is the president of the New Jersey Society of Clinical Pathology. [1] As a physician specializing in orthopedic pathology and cytopathology, Fitzhugh signs out surgical pathology specimens, bone and soft tissue specimens, and cytopathology specimens. [1]

Use of social media

Fitzhugh actively uses social media as a platform to educate future physicians, advocate for diversity and equity in medicine, and share stories about her experiences as a patient. [5] She co-authored a paper in 2020 exploring how cytopathologists share specimens and interesting cases through Twitter using the #FNAFriday hashtag. [6] They explored the composition of tweets in this study and found that tweets include a variety of images and data and they also found that Papanicolau is the most common stain used among the tweets they analyzed. [6] Fitzhugh and her colleagues also explored the use of Twitter at conferences to see if it was increasing the spread of misinformation. [7] They found that at the 2018 Association of Pathology Chairs conference, most speakers reported the tweets about their work as correctly depicting their research, thus highlighting the positive impact that social media can have at conferences. [7]

Fitzhugh's active social media research and presence led to her appointment as a member of the Social Media Committee of Diagnostic Cytopathology. [5] Fitzhugh writes for the medical blog SheMD. [5] She has written articles on why she chose the pathology speciality and why women should consider pursuing this specialty. [8] She has also written about her personal experiences with idiopathic intracranial hypertension. [9]

Awards and honors

Select publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pathology</span> Study of the causes and effects of disease or injury, also how they arise

Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word pathology also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatment, the term is often used in a narrower fashion to refer to processes and tests that fall within the contemporary medical field of "general pathology", an area which includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties that diagnose disease, mostly through analysis of tissue and human cell samples. Idiomatically, "a pathology" may also refer to the predicted or actual progression of particular diseases, and the affix pathy is sometimes used to indicate a state of disease in cases of both physical ailment and psychological conditions. A physician practicing pathology is called a pathologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anatomical pathology</span> Medical specialty

Anatomical pathology (Commonwealth) or Anatomic pathology (U.S.) is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the macroscopic, microscopic, biochemical, immunologic and molecular examination of organs and tissues. Over the last century, surgical pathology has evolved tremendously: from historical examination of whole bodies (autopsy) to a more modernized practice, centered on the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer to guide treatment decision-making in oncology. Its modern founder was the Italian scientist Giovan Battista Morgagni from Forlì.

The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) is a professional membership organisation. Its main function is the overseeing of postgraduate training, and its Fellowship Examination (FRCPath) is recognised as the standard assessment of fitness to practise in this branch of medicine.

Elizabeth Stern was a Canadian-born American pathologist, especially well known for her insights on the cell's progression from a healthy to a cancerous state. Stern was one of the first scientists specializing in cytopathology, the study of diseased cells.

Robert James Gorlin was an oral pathologist, human geneticist and academic at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry.

New Jersey Medical School (NJMS)—also known as Rutgers New Jersey Medical School—is a medical school of Rutgers University, a public research university in Newark, New Jersey. It has been part of the Rutgers Division of Biomedical and Health Sciences since the 2013 dissolution of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Founded in 1954, NJMS is the oldest school of medicine in New Jersey.

James "Jim" Linder is an American author, academic and businessperson, as well as an authority on university research commercialization. He serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of Nebraska Medicine, and most recently was president of the University Technology Development Corporation and chief strategist for the University of Nebraska system. He is also a professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Lindsay Opie</span>

Eugene Lindsay Opie was an American physician and pathologist who conducted research on the causes, transmission, and diagnosis of tuberculosis and on immunization against the disease. He served as professor of pathology at several U.S. medical schools and as Dean of the Washington University School of Medicine.

Dame Barbara Evelyn Clayton was an English pathologist who made a significant contribution to clinical medicine, medical research and public service. She was latterly Professor of Clinical Pathology at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel A. Sanchez</span>

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Amanda Herbert is a British cytopathologist and histopathologist.

Arnold B. Rabson is an American scientist and biomedical researcher. He is the director of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey and the Laura Gallagher Chair of Developmental Biology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Rabson is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Patricia Charache was a physician specializing in infectious disease and microbiology. She was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for more than 50 years, retiring as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pathology, Medicine, and Oncology.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Coupland</span> Australian clinical pathologist

Sarah Coupland is an Australian-born pathologist and professor who is the George Holt Chair in Pathology at the University of Liverpool. Coupland is an active clinical scientist whose research focuses on the molecular genetics of cancers, with particular interests in uveal melanoma, conjunctival melanoma, intraocular and ocular adnexal lymphomas and CNS lymphoma. Coupland is also an NHS Honorary Consultant Histopathologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Since 2006, Coupland has been head of the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group; from which she runs a multidisciplinary oncology research group focussing on Uveal melanoma, based in the Department of Molecular and Clinical Cancer Medicine at the University of Liverpool. Her research laboratory is currently located in the Institute of Translational Medicine From April 2014 to December 2019, Coupland was also Director of the North West Cancer Research Centre, @UoL. In both 2019 and 2020, Coupland was included on the 'Pathology Powerlist' on The Pathologist website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Palavicino-Maggio</span> American neuroscientist

Caroline Palavicino-Maggio is an American neuroscientist and Research Fellow in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Palavicino-Maggio explores how gene expression in amine neurons and neural circuits leads to changes in social behavior, specifically aggression, in Drosophila. Palavicino-Maggio is committed to mentoring and inspiring first-generation students in STEM and serves as the Director of Outreach for the Journal of Emerging Investigators, an open-access journal that publishes research conducted by middle and high school students as a means to expose young and underrepresented future scientists to academic research and the publishing process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara F. Atkinson</span>

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Andrea Lynn Richardson is an American pathologist and physician-scientist specialized in the molecular pathology of breast cancer. She is the Peter and Judy Kovler Professor in Breast Cancer Research and an associate professor of pathology and oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Richardson runs a clinic at the Sibley Memorial Hospital.

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