Curriculum
The anatomic pathology service offers training in the following areas:
- Surgical pathology
- Dermatopathology
- Cytology
- Electron microscopy
- Autopsy pathology, including forensic pathology
- Immunofluorescence microscopy
- Neuropathology
The clinical pathology service offers training in the following areas:
- General clinical chemistry and Flow cytometry
- Special chemistry
- Microbiology
- Diagnostic radioisotope techniques
- Parasitology & virology
- Immunohematology and transfusion medicine
- Cytogenetics, Hematology and Molecular diagnostics
Rotations within various disciplines are integrated throughout the program. Some rotations involve experiences at extramural institutions - Specialty Blood Banking at United Blood Services of Arizona's Central Laboratory; Forensic Sciences, including toxicological studies, at the Medical Examiner's Office of Maricopa County and Flow Cytometry at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital.
The Department of Pathology has a very active teaching program with 11 board-certified pathologists. The pathology residents and staff also participate extensively in teaching and research activities involving other clinical departments in the hospital.
The department actively supports the other residency and fellowship programs through lectures and assistance with clinicopathological exercises and through patient-care consultations. The neurology and neurosurgery programs rotate their residents through the neuropathology section.
Conferences
The residents actively participate in numerous educational activities.
- Weekly Brain-cutting conference - held in-house and at Medical Examiner's Office
- Weekly "Unknowns" conference - provides challenging surgical pathology cases for the residents to review with a different attending each week
- Monthly cytology conference - an "over-the-scope" conference highlighting recent cases
- Monthly Journal Club - keeps the residents up-to-date with any changes in the world of pathology
- Clinical laboratory lectures - the series provides resident-prepared lectures on various clinical laboratory topics
- Cytogenetics conferences
- General Tumor Boards - residents prepare PowerPoint case presentations under staff direction
- Gynecologic Oncology Tumor Board - patient management and treatment conference, with pathology case presentations a critical aspect.
- Daily hematology sign-out conference - provides a review of all challenging blood smears and body fluids, recent bone marrow cases and specialty studies within the hematology section
- Regular lectures - residents receive regular lectures by our own attending pathologists and medical professionals as well as those in the great Phoenix community, including blood bank, neuropathology and clinical lab sciences
- Teleconferences - weekly national broadcasts conferences prepared by the ASCP covering a variety of anatomic and clinic pathology topics
- CAP virtual management conference (audio conference series) - monthly conferences that provide residents with information needed for professional success in the competitive marketplace
Electives
Phoenix is a large metropolitan city with several major hospitals within easy reach. This allows the residents a diverse selection of elective rotations, not only within our own facility, but also through other institutions such as the Mayo Clinic.
