Ensenada, Baja California, México
del 2 al 4 de abril de 2003

Ronald S. Weinstein, M.D.

Dr. Ronald S. Weinstein received his B.S. Degree from Union College (Schenectady, New York) in 1960. He attended Albany Medical College from 1960 to 1962 and received his M.D. degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1965. He became interested in basic research in medical school and developed an independent research program while a medical student. After his second year, he was awarded a research fellowship under Dr. Stanley Bullivant at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Dr. Weinstein completed his intership and residency (under Dr. Benjamin Castleman) at the MGH and was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard Medical School. At the conclusion of his internship year, in 1966, he was awarded his first of many NIH grants, and was named Director of the Mixter Laboratory (at age 27), a position he held throughout his residency. His laboratory did pioneering research on the localization of Band 3 protein, the anion transporter, in red cell membranes (with Drs. Ted Steck and Donald Wallach: Science 168: 255, 1970 – 334 citations); on the molecular structure of gap junctions and on their role in cancer (with Dr. N. Scott McNutt: J Cell Biology 47: 666; 1970 – 424-citations; Science 165:597, 1969 – 80 citations: J Cell Biology 51: 805, 1971— 118 citations); and on the application of freeze-fracture electron microscopy to studies on cellular ultrastructure (Science 190: 54, 1975 – 1164 citations). He did his first of dozens of visiting professorships world-wide as Visiting Professor at the Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany, as a third year pathology resident in 1968.

Dr. Weinstein spent two years as a Major assigned to the Aerospace Research Laboratories at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. He carried out research in environmental toxicology and studied Heinz body anemias and oxidative injury in the liver. Following three years as Associate Professor at Tufts, he was named Harriet Blair Borland Chairman and Professor of Pathology at Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, in 1975 and held that position for 15 years. He was named Head of Pathology at the University of Arizona in 1990 and is currently completing his 28^th year as an academic department chair.

Dr. Weinstein has made significant contributions in research, service, and education. In the research arena, Dr. Weinstein made contributions in the fields of experimental pathology and human bladder cancer and, more recently, in the fields of telemedicine and telepathology. His research on bladder cancer contributed to the elucidation of the role of cell junctions in tumor progression in transitional cell carcinomas. He and his research group carried out the first quantitative electron microscopy studies on gap junctions and tight junctions, research that helped to explain the molecular basis of tumor grade and some of the relationships of these structures to tumor invasion. His group also carried out clinical studies on the progressive loss of blood group antigens in bladder tumorigenesis. Dr. Weinstein served as Director of the Central Pathology Laboratory of the NIH-funded National Bladder Cancer Group, the largest clinical trail group in the field. He organized the National Urinary Bladder Flow Cytometry Network in 1985 and played a central role in bringing flow cytometry into routine clinical practice. He was recognized for these accomplishments when he was elected President of the International Society for Urological Pathology and received that organization’s Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Weinstein is regarded as a pioneer in the fields of telepathology and telemedicine and has created major academic programs in this emerging area. Dr. Weinstein is often cited as the "father of telepathology". He introduced the term, authored the first paper on telepathology, in 1986, and invented robotic telepathology, for which he was awarded several US Patents. Dr. Weinstein established a vision physiology laboratory in Chicago in 1985 and carried out what are now considered classic studies on pathology diagnostic accuracy using video imaging. His early work is the intellectual underpinning of the telepathology field. Dr. Weinstein carried out the first successful test-of-concept demonstrations of robotic telepathology and collaborated on important clinical validation studies. Since the mid-1980’s, Dr. Weinstein and his colleagues have produced a steady stream of basic and clinical research papers on telepathology and studied many aspects of diagnostic imaging ranging from studies on human factors in imaging to practice models for telehealthcare services delivery. He co-authored the first monograph in the telepathology field.

Dr. Weinstein’s work in telepathology forms the basis for telepathology programs in over 35 countries. These programs provide diagnostic services for tens of thousand of patients world-wide. Dr. Weinstein frequently lectures on the topic. For example, since the year 2001 he has given invited lectures at international symposia in seven countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Dr. Weinstein has worked on developing international standards and platforms for telepathology and has been a consultant to the European Union, the World Health Organization, and the Japanese and Panamanian Governments. He also promoted international telepathology for third world nations as President of the International Council of the Societies of Pathology, a World Health Organization-sponsored Council that coordinates the activities of pathology societies in 46 countries, and as Co-Chair of the Telepathology Special Interest Group of the American Telemedicine Association.

Dr. Weinstein is also s a pioneer in the broader field of telemedicine and has authored and co-authored many papers in this field. He organized the Arizona International Telemedicine Network in 1993, which initiated telepathology services to Mexico and China. He was appointed Founding Director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program in 1996. Today, this Arizona Telemedicine Program, under Dr. Weinstein’s leadership, is recognized as one of the top academic telemedicine programs in the world. The Arizona Telemedicine Program provides telemedicine consultations in 60 subspecialties including dermatology, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, pain management, pathology, pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery, and other specialties, to the Navajo, Hopi and Apache Indian Reservations, to rural prisons, to border communities, to other geographically isolated populations, as well as to rural and urban schools in Arizona. This year alone, over 35,000 telemedicine consultations will be provided over the network. The Program has won seven national awards, including the American Telemedicine Associations’ Presidential Award (an international award) as a top program in the field of telemedicine, the best manuscript award of Telemedicine Journal for an outstanding paper on telemedicine clinical research, and the US Distance Learning Associations’ first place award for distance learning over a telemedicine network. The Arizona Telemedicine Program has provided important new opportunities for extramural funding for faculty. The faculty associated with the Arizona Telemedicine Program have been awarded 22 grants totaling over 3.5 million dollars and have published many important papers on telehealth research. Hundreds of hours of Continuing Medical Education and Continuing Education (i.e. nursing) are carried over the network to 67 sites throughout Arizona each year.

The importance of Dr. Weinstein’s work in telemedicine is widely acknowledged. He has received the first place TeleCom Award for individual contributions to telemedicine and is currently the President-Elect of the American Telemedicine Association, the largest professional society in the field. Dr. Weinstein is currently working with the Panamian Government to expand telemedicine and molecular medicine services in Panama and Latin America. Telepathology and teleradiology services have already been deployed in several Panamian rural communities. Dr. Weinstein served as the Chairman of the International Program Committee for the 50^th Anniversary Celebration of the University of Panama School of Medicine in April, 2002. This symposium, on molecular medicine in the twenty-first century, was attended by over 800 Panamanian medical students and alumnae.

Dr. Weinstein has a special interest in education. Since being named Chair of Pathology at Rush in 1975, he has organized Post-Sophomore fellowship programs that have provided unique individualized educational experiences for 71 medical students. He has taught second year pathology to over 3500 medical students. He is actively involved in undergraduate medical education and lectures widely on the use of innovation technologies as educational tools. Dr. Weinstein has received institutional awards as a top teacher at both Rush and Arizona. At Rush, he received the James A. Campbell, M.D. award for distinguished educators. At Arizona, he received three Basic Science Educator-of-the-Year Awards (the most allowed), the College of Medicine’s Basic Science Educator-of-the Year Lifetime Teaching Award, and was elected by three Arizona College of Medicine graduating classes to hood them at graduation. He has also been the top rated faculty member in Arizona’s Mini-Medical School, which provides medical lectures for the lay public, and at many national and international continuing medical education courses.

Dr. Weinstein has been involved in developing educational programs for many regional, national and international organizations. For example, he has served as the President of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), a leading educational organization in pathology, and was a strong proponent of incorporating molecular pathology into its annual programs. During his tenure as a leader at the USCAP, he was the organizer of its Short Courses on "Pathobiology" and "Newer Technologies". He was Co-Course Director for the International Academy of Pathology’s Long Course on "New Concepts of Neoplasia", published as a monograph, and the first USCAP "Flow Cytometry Course", which was also published as a monograph. In 1991, he was Co-Course Director of the USCAP’s "Long Course on Genitourinary Pathology", which was attended by nearly 1,000 pathologists and residents. This resulted in yet another IAP/USCAP monograph, which he co-edited with Dr. William Gardner. Dr. Weinstein delivered an important USCAP named lecture, the Nathan Kaufman Lecture, in 1988. He was involved in establishing the Academy’s permanent headquarters and in developing the concept for one of its journals, Modern Pathology. He has been a strong proponent for recognizing excellence and encouraged the creation of new awards to fill gaps in pathology recognitions. Dr. Weinstein co-founded the Benjamin Castleman Award of the USCAP/MGH, an award for a top paper written by an investigator under the age of 40, and played central roles in establishing the USCAP’s Distinguished Pathologist Award and Stowell-Orbison Awards. He has also developed Short and Long Courses for the American Telemedicine Association, and other professional organizations, and is a much sought-after lecturer for international meetings.

Dr. Weinstein has also had a career-long interest in pathology resident training. He served as the Chair of the Graduate Education Committee of the Association of Pathology Chairs. He was the organizer and Program Chairman for the Association’s first summer meeting, in Aspen, Colorado, in 1987, which has become an annual meeting, and was senior author of the Park City Report, which influenced pathology residency curriculum for over a decade. He has developed many programs and symposia on residency training.