
Charlene Bierl, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Director, Division of Laboratory Medicine
Contact InformationDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA, 19104
Office: 215-662-3435
Email: charlene.bierl@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Specialty Division
Laboratory Medicine, Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology
Clinical Expertise
General Clinical Pathology and laboratory operations. I have served as a CLIA director in a number of settings, covering high complexity testing. My responsibilities involve close collaboration with operations to ensure high quality, patient-centered care from the laboratory. Under this umbrella, I have am particularly interested in cost effective utilization of laboratory resources. This includes, design of the test menu/names in the EHR, decision support to guide test selection, optimization of the resulting formats and decision guidance, as well as efforts to influence utilization patterns toward the latest recommendations.
Education
B.A. (Molecular Bilogy and Biochemistry), Wesleyan University, 1996
M.D. Boston University, 2005
Ph.D. (Pharmacology), Boston University, 2005
Specialty Certification
American Board of Pathology (Clinical Pathology and Transfusion Medicine), 2009
Postgraduate Training
Resident in Clinical Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2005-2008
Chief Resident in Clinical Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2007-2007
Fellowship, Transfusion Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2008-2009
Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, Villanova University (online), 2011-2012
Awards and Honors
Deans Fellowship, Full Tuition Scholarship for Medical School, Boston University, 1995
Hughes Fellowship for Summer Research, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 1995
William Pepper Fellowship for Outstanding Contributions to the Clinical Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2008
Co-Winner, Leonard Jarrett Poster Symposium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
Outstanding Poster Award, AACC Proteomics Conference on "Translating Novel Biomarkers", Bethesda, MD, 2009
Outstanding Service Award from the Medical Staff of Copper University Healthcare, Camden, NJ, 2013
Volunteer Faculty Award, Department of Pathology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of Rutgers University, 2015
Choosing Wisely Champion, American Society of Clinical Pathology, 2019
Memberships and Professional Organizations
American Association of Clinical Chemistry, 2007 - 2016
American Association of Blood Banks, 2008 - 2017
College of American Pathology, 2011 - present
American Red Cross, 2013 - 2016
New Jersey Association of Blood Bank, 2013 - 2015
American Society of Clinical Pathology, 2015 - Present
Quest Diagnostics, 2019 - 2020
TRUU-Lab, 2019 - present
Web Links
Selected Publications
Simplifying the Test Menu to Beat Choice Overload
Charlene Bierl, AACC/Clinical Laboratory News, 2022
Cost per case mix index-adjusted hospital day as a measure of effective laboratory utilization efforts in a growing academic medical center.
Behling, KC and Bierl, C, Am J Clin Pathol, 2019
Implementation of Laboratory Review of Test Builds Within the Electronic Health Record Reduces Errors
Barry C, Edmonston TB, Gandhi S, Ganti K, Kim N, Bierl C, Arch Pathol Lab Med, 2019
Optimization of the Order Menu in the Electronic Health Record Facilitates Test Patterns Consistent with Recommendations in the Choosing Wisely Initiative
Barry C, Kaufman S, Feinstein D, Kim N, Gandhi S, Nikolic D, Edmonston TB, Bierl C, Am J Clin Pathol, 2019
Spotlight Interview with Cooper University Hospital’s Director of Laboratories
Laboratory Economics, Laboratory Economics, 2018
Impact of weekly feedback on test ordering patterns.
Minerowicz C, Abel N, Hunter K, Behling KC, Cerceo E, Bierl C, Am J Manag Care 21(11): 763-8, 2015
Decreased clinical laboratory turnaround time after implementation of a collection manager system.
Behling KC, Marrone D, Hunter K, Bierl C, Arch Pathol Lab Med 139(9): 1084-6, 2015
Short-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme a dehydrogenase associates with a protein super-complex integrating multiple metabolic pathways.
Narayan SB, Master SR, Sireci AN, Bierl C, Stanley PE, Li C, Stanley CA, Bennett MJ, PLoS One 7(14): e35048, 2012
Unbiased statistical analysis for multi-stage proteomic search strategies.
Everett LJ, Bierl C, Master SR, J Proteome Res 9(2): 700-7, 2010
Erythrocytosis-associated HIF-2alpha mutations demonstrate a critical role for residues C-terminal to the hydroxylacceptor proline.
Furlow PW, Percy MJ, Sutherland S, Bierl C, McMullin MF, Master SR, Lappin TR, Lee FS, J Biol Chem 284(14): 9050-08, 2009