Academic Overview

The combined AP/CP "core" curriculum consists of 108 weeks of AP, 76 weeks of CP, and 24 weeks of additional AP/CP electives.  The first year of training (PGY-1) is spent in AP during which each resident spends a total of 4 weeks in Introduction to AP, 36 weeks in surgical pathology (includes 4 weeks of Cytopathology) and 12 weeks in the autopsy rotation.  Surgical pathology consists of rotations in subspecialty areas including GI, GU, Breast, Gyn, Bone and Soft Tissue/Thoracic, and Head & Neck.  The residents participate in grossing of specimens by subspecialty in the gross room every afternoon for 1-3 hours depending on the specimen volume in their assigned subspecialty area.  Specimens are assigned based on level of experience and increasing degrees of difficulty.   Printed guidelines and dictation templates are available for all standard specimens at each one of the grossing stations.  These serve as a handy guide for the first year residents.

The recently created introductory AP four week block for first year residents is a review of basic histology and mechanisms of disease using virtual slides as well as learn the basics of grossing specimens from different organ systems, performing frozen sections and autopsies and familiarizing themselves with different information systems that will be used throughout their residency.

The emphasis of the surgical pathology rotation is mainly on exposure to glass slides.  A teaching collection of glass slides with examples of classical and rare entities in pathology is available for the residents.  Many slides are also imaged on the Resident's web page including virtual microscopy.  Study sets are available from the personal collections of various faculty members.  The department handles a heavy load of surgical specimens, with approximately 114,000 surgicals being accessioned per year.  Because of the specialized nature of the cancer center, residents are exposed daily to a wide variety of specimens and cases that while considered “rare” at other institutions are a commonplace occurrence for OSU residents.  Conferences in surgical pathology are held twice a week from 7:30 – 8:30 AM to include didactic sessions, unknown slide conference and journal club.  Interdisciplinary conferences are held in various disciplines throughout the week in the areas of dermatopathology, gynecologic pathology, bone and soft tissue, gastrointestinal and liver, as well as a general Tumor Board Conference.

The second year (PGY-2) is devoted entirely to clinical pathology.  The OSU Medical Center Clinical Laboratories collectively perform more than 7 million tests per year.  OSU’s Critical Care Laboratory represents one of the few Total Laboratory Automation systems operating in a US academic medical center.  It is one of the finest examples of macro-automation in the country, as evidenced by regular tours of the facility by laboratory groups from all over North America.  Department of Pathology faculty also direct state-of-the-art laboratory facilities devoted to hematopathology, microbiology, transfusion medicine, coagulation, flow cytometry, special chemistry/humoral immunology, cytogenetics, molecular pathology, and toxicology.  The molecular pathology laboratory provides unique cutting edge cancer diagnostic and genetic disease testing.  The transfusion medicine service includes an active apheresis unit. Blood donor experience is provided at the American Red Cross Central Ohio Blood Service, located in Columbus.  Through its outreach arm, University Reference Labs, Inc. (URL), OSU is one of the major suppliers of clinical laboratory testing in central Ohio.  Pathology residents are actively involved in all phases of this extensive and complex operation. 

During the PGY-2 year residents rotate on hematopathology/lymph nodes (14 weeks), transfusion medicine (8 weeks), clinical chemistry (4 weeks), medical microbiology (2 weeks), molecular pathology (4 weeks), cytogenetics (4 weeks), flow cytometry (2 weeks), and AP/CP electives (8weeks).  During this time they are given individual instruction and introduced, via graded responsibility to sign out and management duties on each clinical service.  A regular two year cycle of didactic lectures covering all the major topic areas in CP is conducted weekly, as well as a weekly unknown case conference, a CP journal club, and a review of on-call cases.  There is also a regular two year cycle of Business and Laboratory Management lectures covering legal, economic, ethical and social issues related to laboratory management.

The third and fourth years are composed of a mix of AP and CP with time for electives/research.  These two years consist of 16 weeks spent doing additional surgical pathology rotations, with similar duties but increasingly difficult cases and higher expectations as well as supervision of first year residents on subspecialty rotations.  Anatomic pathology rotations include a gross room rotation (4 weeks), cytopathology block (8 weeks with the option of rotating an additional 4 week block or an AP elective), dermatopathology (8 weeks), forensic pathology at the Franklin County Coroner's Office (4 weeks), neuropathology (4 weeks), renals/transplant pathology (4 weeks), pediatric anatomic pathology at The Nationwide Children's Hospital (4 weeks), and AP subspecialty (4 weeks).  Rotations on clinical pathology include the completion of higher-level structured rotations in hematopathology/lymph nodes (8 weeks), transfusion medicine (8 weeks), pediatric clinical pathology at The Nationwide Children's Hospital (4 weeks), chemistry/toxicology (4 weeks), chemistry (4 weeks), medical microbiology (4 weeks), flow cytometry (2 weeks) and  AP/CP electives (12 weeks), which can be used to revisit any rotation, or complete special projects and research.

Call responsibility is distributed as follows: Autopsy - once every 7 weeks for second through fourth years.  Frozen section evening call (Monday-Friday) - on call approximately once in every 7 weeks for second through fourth year residents.  Call responsibilities begin approximately at 5:00 pm.  Clinical pathology call - second through fourth year residents.  Take night clinical pathology/frozen section call about 2-3 times per month, take weekend clinical pathology/frozen section call one weekend in about every six weeks.  At the end of their training the residents will have gained a tremendous amount of experience in dealing with many of the routine and challenging clinical pathology questions from clinicians as well as a breadth of experience in frozen section consultations. Residents are always assigned  with a faculty member while on call.

PGY-1 residents are assigned to the Autopsy service for weekdays, and for selected Saturday's and Holidays.  NO autopsies are performed on Sunday's, Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, or January 1st.  Monday through Friday the resident is located in the autopsy area.  For Saturday and holiday assignments, the resident must be available for any case that is ready for autopsy by 1:00 pm.  An attending pathologist will be available to provide direct supervision or indirect supervision with direct supervision immediately available for the duration of the resident's presence on site.

Evaluations of residents’ performance are carried out at the end of each rotation and are based on the competency standards set by the ACGME.   Evaluations are performed by the faculty and staff, and are reviewed with the resident by the Program Director or Associate Program Director for AP and CP semi-annually.  In addition to the faculty evaluation, residents' performance and progress is also objectively evaluated at the end of major rotations.  A well-defined set of criteria for remediation, disciplinary action or probation is delineated in the Residency Program Statement and Resident handbook which is provided to all residents at the beginning of their training.  The residents evaluate the faculty, rotations and conferences anonymously.