Medical Education
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Pathology Electives for MS3 & MS4 (Current)
Path 4370 Pathology UHB Core Yr (MS3)
Path 4364 Intro to Surg Path KCH
Path 4366 Forensic Path King - also for Core Yr (MS3)
PATH 4370 Core Yr (MS3) Pathology Elective
Two-Week Pathology Elective for Third Year Medical Students
Overview
The goal of this elective is to expose medical students to the everyday practice of
pathology in an academic medical center. Pathologists practice in a wide variety of
disciplines or subspecialties in diverse settings. Students will have the opportunity
to spend time at University Hospital of Brooklyn with pathology attendings and residents
working in a number of these areas, e.g., surgical pathology, cytopathology, transfusion
medicine, chemical pathology, autopsy pathology, hematopathology, molecular pathology,
and neuropathology. Students may observe routine microscopic sign-outs of surgical
pathology cases, gross examination and sectioning of surgical specimens, sign-out
of cytopathology slides or fine needle aspirations, autopsy cases; attend and participate
in brain cutting with neuropathologists; observe and discuss appropriate distribution
of blood products with transfusion medicine pathologists; discuss laboratory management
and chemical pathology with clinical pathologists; and attend case presentations,
unknown case conferences, journal clubs, tumor boards, and other conferences. Students
are required to keep a daily log briefly summarizing their activities during these
two weeks. At the conclusion of the two-week period, this log should be returned to
Denise Leggard along with a one-page essay describing an interesting diagnostic case
or laboratory problem you encountered during the elective (see requirements below).
Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this elective the student should be able to:
- Describe the varied training pathways for a career in Anatomic and / or Clinical Pathology and/or subspecialties of pathology, e.g. neuropathology, forensic pathology, etc.
- Explain the importance of clinical information in the evaluation of specimens in Surgical Pathology, in planning an autopsy, and for appropriate distribution of blood products in Transfusion Medicine. Give an example of how clinical information is important for handling of a specimen and for diagnosis.
- Describe the role of the pathologist in patient care. Observe procedures such as fine needle aspiration, frozen section, bone marrow analysis, grossing and signout of surgical specimens, signout of cytology specimens, autopsy, brain cutting, etc.
- Describe the varied roles of Clinical Pathology laboratories (Transfusion Medicine, Chemistry, Hematology, Microbiology, Virology, Molecular Pathology) in patient care.
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic gross and histopathology appropriate for level of third year medical student.
Interpret several common laboratory tests. Describe a factor which may impact laboratory
results.
Requirements: Your main responsibility is to introduce yourself to each attending and resident
with whom you are interacting, observe carefully and read around your cases. Don’t
hesitate to ask questions of attendings and residents! Students should demonstrate
professionalism in their interactions with attending pathologists, residents, and
technical and support staff. Students are required to attend all departmental resident
conferences.
You should ensure that your various activities meet the learning objectives for the elective. Students are required to keep a daily log briefly summarizing their activities during the elective. At the end of the two weeks, we ask that you write a one page essay discussing one interesting case, diagnostic problem, or laboratory issue you encountered during this elective. This could be about, for example, an interesting tumor case in surgical pathology, a transfusion reaction or some other blood bank problem, a fine needle aspiration or autopsy you attended, an interesting protein electrophoresis result, etc. It is not necessary to focus on rare conditions; common cases or situations, if interesting to you, are fine.
Assessment: Students will be assessed by the course director based on the demonstration of achieving the learning objectives based on the information provided in the daily log and in the one page essay. Students will also be assessed by their supervising attendings based on their attendance, professional behavior, interactions with the healthcare team, self-directed learning, and satisfactory completion of all requirements of the elective. It is expected that the attending will seek input into the assessment from the residents or fellows on the service. It should be emphasized that the students are in the early stages of their training; they should not be held to unrealistic standards of knowledge or clinical proficiency that might be expected of residents or of medical students further along in their training.
FAQs About Two Week Elective
1. What conferences should I attend?
You are required to attend all departmental resident conferences. Most occur at 8:15
AM in BSB 4-5. Please contact Natasha Henry (natasha.henry@downstate.edu, 7l8-270-8173)
for a copy of the conference schedule by email.
Medical students may wish to prepare for the Robbins Review conference (Monday mornings
at 8:15 AM in BSB 4-5) by looking over the assigned chapter in Robbins and Cotran,
Pathologic Basis of Disease, 10th edition.
2. Where do I start?
It is up to you to construct your two week schedule. If you wish to start with Surgical
Pathology, for example, click on faculty link for a list of faculty with contact information.
Preferably in advance of the start of your elective contact Dr. Zeng (Surg Path) or
Dr. Loukeris (Cytopath) to see if you can spend a few days in surgical pathology and/or
cytopathology. In addition to seeing sign-outs at the microscope, you should observe
“grossing” of specimens by residents (in A2-470) and get an idea of how tissues are
processed in the Histology Laboratory. Surgical pathology sign-outs occur at the multiheaded
microscope on Monday to Friday, usually from 10 AM to noon and 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM,
A2-469, University Hospital of Brooklyn.
Similarly, if you would like to observe the activities in the Blood Bank and transfusion
medicine, contact Dr. Kang and he will tell you the best time to come to this lab.
You should email your cell phone information to Dr. Jenny Libien, Director of the
Autopsy service, so that you may be contacted about any autopsy cases. You may wish
to set up appointments with other faculty as well, either to go over cases or to discuss
laboratory issues. When you have unscheduled time, you are encouraged to read about
any of the interesting cases you have seen.
3. Where should I sit?
Most of the clinical activities take place on the second floor of UHB. Here, you will
probably be able to sit in the Clinical Pathology Residents Room (Room A2-429). The
Anatomic Pathology Residents Room is quite small and would not be as good.
4. What should I wear?
As you will be in the hospital, dress neatly and do not wear blue jeans or sandals.
If you are in the specimen grossing room in surgical pathology or in the autopsy room,
it would be best to wear a white coat or scrubs. Scrubs are required for observing
and participating in autopsy.
5. What should I read?
http://www.pathologytraining.org/career/documents/PathologyCareers.pdf
Robbins and Cotran, Pathologic Basis of Disease, 10th edition.
Students have access to the electronic version of Robbins via the library subscription
to MD CONSULT. See also https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/browse/book/3-s2.0-C20160040871
AAMC Careers in Medicine
Department: Pathology
Course Director: Daniel Levitan, MD
Contact Person: Denise Leggard, BSB 4-5
Email: Denise.Leggard@downstate.edu
Telephone: 718-270-4599
Fax: 718-270-3313
Course Location: University Hospital of Brooklyn
Course Timing: Offered September through May
Session Duration: Two weeks
Hours per day: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday