PAT 3100 Pathology Selective
Clinical Non Hands-On/Indirect
Course Objective: The objective of the pathology clerkship and selective is to provide students with an opportunity to enhance their pathology and laboratory medicine knowledge and obtain a greater understanding of the broad scope of a pathologist’s role in patient care in the hospital setting. The specialty of pathology is divided into anatomic and clinical pathology.
- Anatomic pathology can be classified by three broad areas including surgical pathology, cytopathology, and autopsy pathology.
- Surgical pathology is the gross and microscopic examination of surgical resections and biopsy samples including intraoperative frozen section. Surgical pathology is divided into subspecialties based on body site/tumor type.
- Cytopathology includes examination of pap smears, needle aspirates, brushings, and fluid collection to provide minimally invasive diagnoses.
- Autopsy pathology is the examination of the deceased to clarify the physiologic derangements that caused death for the purposes of general medical knowledge (hospital autopsies) or medicolegal purposes (forensic autopsies).
Clinical pathology includes lab medicine as well as oversight and administration of patient laboratories. It includes areas such as transfusion medicine (blood bank), hematology and coagulation, clinical chemistry, and microbiology.
In addition to exploring a broad cross section of the pathology specialty, students will be expected to attend intradepartmental conferences (interesting case conferences) and interdepartmental conferences (tumor board). Students should take initiative to ensure they The rotation should be designed to gain experiences in both anatomic and clinical pathology. Students not interested in a career in pathology will still benefit greatly from overview of laboratory medicine and direct observation as to how the laboratory interacts with and processes your specialty’s specimens, makes final diagnoses, decides stage and margin status, prepares for tumor boards, etc.
Additionally, students may seek to tailor a rotation in pathology around their particular specialty of interest. For example, students interested in orthopedic surgery could study bone pathology reviewing cases closely with a bone and soft tissue pathologist, general surgery could focus on anatomic pathology, frozen sections, and transfusion medicine, nephrology could attend rapid on-site evaluation in the IR suite and then examine those renal biopsies working closely with a renal pathologist, dermatology could focus on skin biopsies and the subspecialty of dermatopathology, anesthesiology could focus on blood banking and transfusion medicine.
- For special rotations, we can coordinate these with the Joint Pathology Center, Silver Spring, MD. These are typically 4th year rotations.
Offered
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) - MD; Brooke Army Medical Center, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston (BAMC/JBSA) - TX; Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord (TCM) - WA.