Michael Laposata, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Michael Laposata is the Edward and Nancy Fody Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He is the Pathologist-in-Chief at Vanderbilt University Hospital and Director of Clinical Laboratories. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship and residency in Laboratory Medicine (Clinical Pathology) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He took his first faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1985, where he was an Assistant Professor and Director of the hospital's coagulation laboratory. In 1989, he became Director of Clinical Laboratories at the Massachusetts General Hospital and was appointed to faculty in pathology at Harvard Medical School, where he became a tenured full Professor of Pathology.
His research program, with more than 150 peer reviewed publications, has focused on fatty acids and their metabolites. His research group is focused on the study of fatty acid alterations in cystic fibrosis.
Dr. Laposata's clinical expertise is in the field of blood coagulation, with a special expertise in the diagnosis of hypercoagulable states.
Dr. Laposata implemented a system whereby the clinical laboratory data in coagulation and other areas of laboratory medicine are systematically interpreted with the generation of a patient specific narrative paragraph by a physician with expertise in the area. This service is essentially identical to the service provided by physicians in radiology and anatomic pathology, except that it involves clinical laboratory test results. In 2005, Dr. Laposata was recognized by the Institute of Quality in Laboratory Medicine of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for this innovation.
Dr. Laposata is the recipient of 14 major teaching prizes at Harvard, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His recognitions include the 1989 Lindback award, a teaching prize with competition across the entire University of Pennsylvania system; the 1998 A. Clifford Barger mentorship award from Harvard Medical School; election to the Harvard Academy of Scholars in 2002, and to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Teaching in 2009; and the highest award - by vote of the graduating class - for teaching in years 1 and 2 at Harvard Medical School in 1999, 2000, and 2005.