General Program Features
Our curriculum is designed to provide complete training in all major areas of anatomic and clinical pathology, while remaining flexible enough to accommodate diverse career goals in private practice, academic or other settings.
- Integrated AP/CP program that provides a balanced and mixed AP & CP experience in each year of residency training.
- Comprehensive didactic lectures, that includes an 8:00-9:00 AM lecture slot during which residents take no calls or perform service obligations.
- A robust apheresis experience.
- Balanced call schedule between junior and senior residents.
- Opportunities for research with departmental support to present data at national meetings as well as an annual cash award presented to the resident with the most substantial publication.
- Teaching experience for medical students, residents from other disciplines, and other trainees.
- Monthly departmental journal club, hematopathology, cytology and research journal clubs.
- UNMC's The Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute Designated Cancer Center of which a number of our clinicians and researchers are actively involved.
- Gastrointestinal/Liver, Hematopathology, Molecular Genetics, Microbiology, and Surgical Pathology fellowships.
Anatomic Pathology
- Each surgical rotation affords the opportunity for sub specialty sign out during the surgical pathology rotation blocks so residents can focus attention and work with the same attending allowing for comparison of similar cases.
- The 2-week rotation through each sub specialty in surgical pathology ensures residents are able to preview, dictate, order special stains and molecular tests, and see the outcome for almost every case.
- Gross room technical staff includes four certified pathology assistants that are incorporated into the workflow to ensure a balance between education and clinical duties for the residents.
- Unknown slide conferences, organized study sets and review of the interesting cases for all residents help maintain surgical pathology skills, even when the resident is not on the surgical pathology service.
- Strong mix of neoplastic and non-neoplastic cases, with all organ systems well represented.
- Preparation of pathologic material for presentation at interdisciplinary conferences (tumor boards) with radiologists, surgeons, and oncologists.
- Specialized procedures:
- Fine needle aspiration training
- Average of 40 hospital-based and 50 forensic autopsies during the four year training period.
Clinical Pathology
- Molecular pathology
- Full menu of in house molecular tests that encompasses genetic, neoplastic and infectious cases.
- Microbiology
- Wide variety of microbiology material including onsite Mycobacteriology and Mycology laboratories.
- Daily plate rounds and clinical rounds with the clinical infectious disease team.
- Monthly city-wide infectious disease conference.
- Emphasis on molecular diagnostics.
- Blood bank/transfusion medicine
- Didactic sessions covering all board-relevant topics.
- Blood utilization.
- Molecular immunohematology.
- Therapeutic apheresis including evaluation and management of patients undergoing plasma exchange, photopheresis, red blood cell exchange, and cytapheresis.
- Workup of transfusion reactions.
- Hands on laboratory experience.
- Coagulation
- Review of Thromboelastography (TEG), von-Willebrand’s, lupus anticoagulant and other panels that require pathologists’ interpretation.
- Onsite special coagulation laboratory.
- Chemistry
- Daily protein electophoresis signout.
- Weekly hemoglobin electrophoresis signout.
- Workup of all clinical consultations.
- Involvement in laboratory management topics, including quality assurance.
- Hematopathology
- Onsite flow cytometry laboratory.
- Onsite molecular, cytogenetic and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) laboratories.
- Large volume of in-house and consult material.
- Separate rotations on wet hematology, bone marrows, lymph nodes and flow cytometry.
- Laboratory Management/Informatics
- Dedicated laboratory management education, including pathology informatics.
- Review of proficiency testing and quality controls for clinical labs.
- Participation in laboratory management meetings.
- Participation in internal and external CAP lab inspections.