Program Overview

Residency Program

The pathology residency program at UT Health San Antonio is a four-year, combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology program. The overall goal of the Pathology Residency Program is to provide comprehensive training in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine.

Overview

The training program provides an appropriate balance between service obligations and educational opportunities. The residents are provided with opportunities and are expected to take ownership of patient case material and function as integral members of the health care team.

Curriculum

Pathology residents experience hands-on, active learning. An individualized, flexible training schedule with integrated Anatomic and Clinical pathology rotations throughout training helps residents achieve their career goals and provide a well-rounded experience. Rotations are most often completed in 4 week rotation blocks, though various 2 week rotations and electives are available.

Core Rotations

• The combined AP/CP program requires four years of training and includes approximately 24-month core program in anatomic pathology and a 19-month core program in clinical pathology.
• Approximately 5-6 months of elective time are available as a PGY2-PGY4s with opportunities available in numerous subspecialty areas.
• A one month elective at another training institution may be pursued if desired.
• A one month elective can also be utilized as protected research time or a dedicated lab management rotation.

Surgical Pathology Rotations

• Core surgical pathology rotations are performed as general pathology sign out with routine subspecialty sign out for gynecologic pathology at University Hospital and subspecialty dermatopathology sign out at the VA.
• General surgical pathology rotation cycles include:
  • VA (2 day cycle)
    1. Preview
    2. Sign out/ Gross
  • UHS (4 day cycle)
    1. Frozens
    2. Grossing
    3. Preview
    4. Sign out

Clinical Pathology Rotations

• Core rotations in clinical pathology provide hands-on experience in daily clinical diagnostic challenges and experiences in laboratory management.
• Many core rotations allow for advancing autonomy and graduated responsibility.

Fellowships

Advanced fellowship training in Clinical Informatics, Cytopathology, Hematopathology, Surgical Pathology, and Transfusion Medicine are also available.

Research

All residents are encouraged to participate in clinical research both in anatomic and clinical pathology. Additional opportunities for both basic and clinical research are available with faculty who have varied research interests.

Research Requirements

• During residency, each resident is expected to undertake and complete a scientific project to be published as a peer-reviewed state or national abstract/paper.
• This is to give the residents exposure and experience in formulating hypotheses, working through a well-controlled project and organizing data suitable for publication.

Conferences

The Resident conferences have been organized to provide a combination of didactic lectures in AP/CP, working conferences to review the most recent cases, and exposure to basic research and quality assurance.

Teaching

Residents have opportunities for teaching experience in their interaction with medical students and residents from other fields while they are on pathology rotations. Residents also participate in the teaching of the group lab sessions within the preclinical medical student pathology course. Advanced teaching experiences are available based on the resident's interest.

Resources and Additional Perks

• Each resident within the resident room is provided a personal desk, microscope, web cam, and dictation microphone.
• A personal book fund of $800 is provided for each resident per year for pathology-related texts/resources, STEP3/COMLEX3 exam fees, Board exam fees and state licensing fees.
• An additional travel & registration fund is provided for residents who present and attend state or national meetings.
• The pathology program provides individual subscriptions to PathPrimer (question bank), Expert Consult (Digital Pathology Text Books), Immunoquery, and the ASCP University of Pathology Informatics certificate course.
• A shared physical & digital pathology library of pathology texts is maintained and updated.
• UT Health San Antonio provides online database access to various resources including, but not limited to PubMed, OVID, Up to Date, and full access to online text books through Clinical Key.
• Catered lunch or breakfast is provided at least three times a week along with protected educational time during didactic sessions.

Program Design

The overall design of this residency training program has been accomplished after many hours of work by contributing faculty and the Program Effectiveness Committee composed of resident, fellow and faculty representatives. The combination of structured core rotations and less structured, advanced level training provides residents with a strong basic fund of knowledge while allowing pursuit of individual interests and career goals.