Klaus Schreiber, M.D.: Outstanding Cytopathologist and Brilliant Teacher
The field of cytopathology has lost a brilliant diagnostician and a passionate friend and educator with the passing of Dr. Klaus Schreiber, who died on Friday, April 28, after a lengthy illness compounded by a recent fall. A professor emeritus of pathology at Einstein, who trained countless cytology fellows and pathology residents over several decades at Montefiore, Dr. Schreiber was 85 and lived in Tuxedo Park, NY.
![Klaus Schreiber, M.D., 1937 to 2023]()
Born June 13, 1937, in Teplitz, Czechoslovakia, seven-year-old Klaus fled with his family to Vienna, Austria in 1944 during the Russian occupation of his native country. In Vienna, he became a choir boy and developed his lifelong passion for classical music and opera. After earning his medical degree in 1962 at the University of Vienna Medical School, he trained as an anatomic and clinical pathology resident at General Hospital, in Linz, Austria.
In 1964 Dr. Schreiber came to the United States to continue his pathology residency training, first at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, NJ, and later at the Francis Delafield Hospital of Columbia University. He was among the early cytopathology fellows to train under the leadership of Dr. Leopold Koss at Memorial Hospital, now Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Koss was a world-renowned cytopathologist and a founding father of cytopathology as a distinct field within pathology. In 1967, the year after he left Memorial to chair the growing department of pathology at Montefiore he recruited Dr. Schrieber to head the new division of cytopathology. Known to colleagues as the “golden duo,” they established a world-class fellowship program, attracting some of the brightest trainees and creating a state- of-the-art cytopathology service.
Scientific Achievements
As colleagues and friends at Montefiore, Drs. Schreiber and Koss performed numerous studies and co-authored many scientific papers in the field of cytopathology, especially on the early diagnosis of malignancy and its precursors. Dr. Schreiber provided valued support for Dr. Koss’ textbooks and publications, contributing research data, images, suggestions, and insights, and served as a sounding board for Dr. Koss, as well.
In 1984, their studies of cytological material derived from endometrial abrasions in 4,000 asymptomatic women established the first known incidence statistics for occult endometrial carcinoma and precursors. Several years later, the findings of this study (incidence of 1.7 women/1,000 women per year) were confirmed by the Women's Health Initiative, a landmark, national study that involved long-term surveillance of 175,000 women at 40 clinical centers throughout the United States—for which Einstein was a study site.
![Dr. Schreiber with his mentor Dr. Leopold Koss]()
Dr. Schreiber with his mentor Dr. Leopold Koss
In the early 1990s, Drs. Schreiber and Koss and other pathologists at Montefiore, collected cytological images of cells from pap smears to help develop a system to make the Pap test more reliable. Their work provided the framework for PAPNET, a neural-network-based device that uses artificial intelligence to analyze pap smear samples and detect abnormal cells. In a clinical trial at Montefiore led by Dr. Koss, PAPNET detected 97 percent of known abnormal cases. This study was one of the earliest successful experiments in the field that helped pave the road for the creation of modern artificial intelligence software and scanning devices we use today.
Upon his retirement from Montefiore in 2016, Dr. Schreiber was appointed professor emeritus and continued to work with colleagues and trainees to diagnose challenging cases. His work with PAPNET led Dr. Schreiber to join CDx Diagnostics, in Suffern, NY, as a core member of its pathology team. He helped train and expand the CDx Diagnostics/WATS3D neural net, developing diagnostic testing and services for the early detection and prevention of esophageal cancer.
He was a leader in this nascent field of oral and gastrointestinal cytology, again training many pathologists while providing care to and saving the lives of patients with diseases of these areas who had little other means of early detection. Until his illness, he participated in developing a cytologic AI detection method of pre-neoplastic and neoplastic diseases of the esophagus at that laboratory.
In a letter to the Schreiber family, Mark Rutenberg, a dear friend of Dr. Schreiber and founder of PAPNET and CDX Diagnostics wrote: “I can say with some assurance that your father was among the finest, most considerate men I've ever met. He just became a significant part of my spiritual subconscious.”
A Passionate Educator
While Dr. Schreiber will be remembered for his long and illustrious career as a brilliant diagnostician and researcher, his legacy as an amazing teacher will also live on.
“Klaus could make cells sing,” recalled Dr. Mark Suhrland, an attending cytopathologist who trained as a fellow under Dr. Schreiber in 1984. “You always learned something of value, and you were never bored.”
In fact, his engaging training sessions at the multi-headed microscope formed the ad hoc core curriculum in how to look at cytology slides.
Dr. Schreiber’s unique style of teaching has become the blueprint his former cytopathology fellows emulate, many of whom have become heads of their own laboratories in nearly all teaching institutions, government agencies, and laboratories in New York City and beyond.
“What set him apart was his masterful ability to verbalize his thought process and describe to his trainees how he arrived at a diagnosis,” said Dr. Ciaran Mannion, a former Montefiore cytopathology fellow who is now founding chair and professor of pathology at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. ‘You could hear the cogs turning in his head. He was constantly thinking and wondering about novel insights; it’s what made him a brilliant teacher.”
Dr. Mannion added, “When a pathologist looks at fluids or tissues under a microscope it's never done in isolation from the clinical picture. Klaus was exceptional at being able to get on the phone with the clinician to tease out little details that were critically important in diagnosing and managing patients’ ailments.”
Dr. Schreiber also helped change the career trajectory of Camille McKay, who began working at Montefiore in an entry-level clerical position and now serves as the regional pathology manager for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She recalled that she’d had little vision for her future until Dr. Schreiber gave her ‘Growing Down with Mamma,’ a book about a young woman whose mother discouraged her from exploring untraditional goals. “He then offered me a position within his lab,” she said, adding, “Little did I realize that Dr. Schreiber was quietly, but with great generosity, assuming the role of mentor. I will always be so grateful to him. He was a kind, caring, patient, and brilliant man, doctor, and mentor.”
Personal Life
A history buff with a life-long love of classical music, Dr. Schreiber enjoyed attending performances at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera. Born with genetic polycystic kidney disease, he spent the last 16 years undergoing dialysis three times a week. Despite the grueling treatment schedule, he never slowed down and worked until months before his death, and even traveled to Russia.
“It was his will and belief that he could work and teach again, and he would go home and start looking at slides again, and that's what gave him hope,” said Dr. Schreiber’s daughter Barbara Parnell. “He had a zest for life and for learning that was infectious. And he was a very kind and thoughtful human being.”
Our deepest condolences go out to Dr. Schreiber’s wife Joelle Patricia Schreiber, his daughter Barbara and her husband George Parnell, his daughter Ursula Schreiber, his son Nicholai Schreiber, and his granddaughters, AnnaMaria Schreiber and Katharine Parnell.
A private funeral service was held Friday, May 5. The family is planning to hold a celebration of life, with details to come. You also can Leave a Remembrance of Dr. Schreiber here.
Posted on: Tuesday, June 06, 2023