Pediatric Pathology Fellowship Curriculum

Rotations happen on four-week blocks. The fellows will rotate through surgical pathology (6 blocks), autopsy service (3 blocks), placenta/perinatal pathology (1 block) and neuropathology (1 block). Two months of elective rotations are provided towards the end of the year with the goal of allowing the fellow to tailor elective time towards possible future needs. Elective time can include additional time in one of the core rotations outlined above or alternatively, other elective rotations available include hematopathology, liver and GI pathology, renal pathology, transplant pathology, molecular pathology, ophthalmic pathology and research.

We have a very active intraoperative consultation (frozen section) service providing sufficient experience for the fellow to become comfortable reporting intraoperative consultation independently by the end of their training.

Fellow’s Conference: Occurs on a weekly basis on Thursdays at noon. It is a fellow-run conference and topics rotate to include:

Interesting case conference: interesting surgical pathology cases are brought up and discussed.
Autopsy: the gross and microscopic findings of interesting/challenging autopsy cases are presented with discussion of clinicopathologic correlations and cause of death.

Journal club: recent research articles pertinent to the field of pediatric pathology are presented and critically discussed.

Anatomic Pathology/Molecular Pathology conference: Cases requiring correlation with molecular pathology findings are discussed with our Molecular Pathology colleagues.

Surgery/Radiology/Pathology Correlation Conference (twice per month, Tuesdays at 8 a.m.): This conference is run by pediatric surgery residents/fellows. Three cases of their choosing are presented from the surgical, radiologic and pathologic perspective. Pediatric pathology fellows are in charge of presenting the pathologic findings.

There are numerous additional conferences that the fellow is highly encouraged to attend which include:

• Pediatric Grand Rounds (weekly, Friday at 8:30 a.m.)
• Renal Pathology Conference (every other week)
• Liver Pathology Conference (monthly)
• Pulmonary Radiology-Pathology Conference (monthly)
• Heart Transplant Conference (monthly)
• Tumor boards (thyroid, liver, soft tissue)
• M&M conferences

The fellow will take call every three-four weeks, for a week at a time under the supervision of attending on call.

Many of our faculties are actively involved in research projects within our department and in collaboration with other clinical departments. Ample opportunity is provided to participate in any of these endeavors. In addition, we welcome and support research endeavors that are within the fellow’s interests.