About Us
We are here to make a difference.
We improve healthcare through high quality, timely and cost-effective laboratory testing made possible by consultation, teaching, research, and learning. We support medicine of the highest order by being the first choice in partnering with customers to develop new treatments for disease and the next generation of diagnostic laboratory testing.
Our History
UR Medical Center founder and Medical School Dean, George H. Whipple was the first chairman of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Under the leadership of him and Drs. Lowell Orbison, Roger Terry, Stanley Patten, Thomas Bonfiglio, Steven Spitalnik, Dean Arvan, and Daniel Ryan, the department grew from a small (but distinguished) academic and research department into a multi-faceted enterprise of basic science and clinical work.
In recent decades, we have seen increasing consolidation, standardization, automation, and utilization of diagnostic tests. The UR Medicine Labs clinical laboratories now serve a wide-spread physician population, and manage some 40 patient service centers.
Advancing Research
Dr. Whipple shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia. Today, investigators have greater understanding of the human genome as the field has shifted its focus to examining disease processes at the molecular level. More than half of the faculty currently receive extramural research funding for projects ranging from basic studies of cancer biology to the clinical utility of specific drugs.
Developments in clinical and research laboratories must be shared with the next generation. Faculty teach in our array of educational offerings that include a robust residency training program, post-residency fellowships, the Ph.D. program, postdoctoral fellowships, and medical student required courses and electives. The department also maintains a longstanding year-out medical student fellowship.