Pathology Residency

Rotaciones

A sample of our rotations is below. The PGY-1 year is relatively set, but the PGY-2 through PGY-4 years can be rearranged to accommodate special interests (fellowship interest).

PGY-1

• Surgical pathology (eight months)
• Autopsy (one dedicated month; rotating autopsy coverage throughout residency)
• Blood bank/apheresis (two months)
• Core labs 1 (one month)

PGY-2

• Surgical pathology (four months)
• Cytopathology 1 (two months)
• Hematopathology (three months, including two weeks in Apheresis)
• Microbiology (two months) at Med Fusion
• Core labs 2 (one month) at Med Fusion

PGY-3

• Surgical pathology (four months)
• Cytopathology 2 (one month)
• Molecular 1 (one month)
• Hematopathology (three months)
• Flow cytometry/Cytogenics (one month) at Med Fusion
• Transplant immunology/Coagulation (one month)
• Flex month (one month)

PGY-4

• Surgical pathology junior staff (one month)
• Clinical pathology junior staff (one month) at Med Fusion
• Forensic pathology (one month) at Dallas County Medical Examiner
• Surgical pathology (one month)
• Core labs 3 (one month)
• Dermatopathology (one month)
• Molecular 2 (one month) at Med Fusion
• Pediatrics pathology (one month) at Children’s Medical Center Dallas
• Breast pathology (one month)
• Flex months (two months)

Total anatomic pathology rotations: 27 months
Total clinical pathology rotations: 18 months
Total flex: three months

Because we generally alternate between taking three to five residents each year (to maintain 18 residents total), the annual resident schedule can have minor variations depending on the year.

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Weekend autopsy coverage

• PGY-1: five weekends each
• PGY-2: four weekends each
• PGY-3: about two weekends each
• PGY-4: about one weekend each

Regular call coverage

• PGY-2: five weeks each
• PGY-3: four weeks each
• PGY-4: three weeks each

Residents take regular call a week at a time, starting from Friday 5 p.m. to the following Friday 7:30 a.m. However, the call resident only handles after-hours calls (during work hours, the call resident is not involved). Call is relatively light at our program.

The resident helps handle the following:

• After-hours frozens (average 1-2, varies from 0 to 5 in a week)
• Transplant organ donation evaluation (average 1-3, varies from 0 to 7 in a week)
• Rapid GMS (rare to occur overnight, usually done in the morning next day by cytology service)
• Autopsy requests – handled over the phone (average 1-2, varies from 0 to 4 in a week)
• Transfusion reaction – handled over the phone (average 1-2, varies from 0 to 4 in a week)

At Baylor Dallas, pathology residents do not triage transfusion/blood product requests. Usually the only blood bank calls residents deal with are transfusion reactions.

At all times, an attending is available and on call with the resident.

Conferences

Clinically relevant rotations, in both AP and CP are integrated throughout training, and residents attend and present at departmental and interdepartmental conferences. Several conferences play a major role in the residency program, including:

• Weekly didactic lectures (topics are rotated over a two-year period, with roughly one month dedicated to each topic)
• Weekly unknowns conference
• Monthly journal clubs
• Tumor boards
• GI/liver conference
• Nephrology conference
• Heme-Onc conference
• Morbidity and mortality conference

Tumor board conferences

Surgeons, oncologists, radiologists and pathologists present their perspectives on each patient presented. This is an opportunity to learn about interesting and complex cases and understand clinical implications for pathology diagnoses.

The pathology resident is responsible for preparing and presenting a power point presentation on the tumor histology, pathologic findings and staging. All cases are reviewed with the attending prior to the conference.

Flex time

Although flex months are listed in the third and fourth year in our schedule, they can be used at any point during residency. Our program is very supportive when residents wish to do off-campus rotations, and resident pay by our institution is maintained during off-campus electives.

The following flex time opportunities are available to our residents. Other flex options can be set up by the program if requested.

• Community pathology
• Renal pathology
• Neuropatología
• General surgical pathology
• Pecho
• Ginecología
• Transplant pathology
• Research month
• Citopatología 
• Microbiology
• Chemistry
• Blood bank
• Informatics