Residency Program
- Program Description
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
Iowa City, Iowa
- click and/or scroll to view:
| Programs offered Overview of Rotations Research/Elective Teaching |
On-call responsibilities Space and Facilities Faculty Stipends |
The University and Iowa City Communities
Programs offered
The Department of Pathology offers approved training for residents as follows:
Combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology - 4 years
Straight Anatomic Pathology - 3 years
Straight Clinical Pathology - 3 years
Physician Scientist Training Pathway - 3-4 years
Twenty pathology residency positions are available, generally with five residents in each year of training. The number of residents apportioned to straight versus combined training is flexible.
Overview of rotations
Rotations are organized into nine blocks per year (approximately 5 1/2 weeks each). Rotations are as follows:
Anatomic Pathology (17 blocks)
General Surgical Pathology (5 blocks)
Senior Surgical Pathology (4 blocks)
2 at VA Hospital
2 at University Hospital as acting fellow
Autopsy (4 blocks)
Cytopathology (2 blocks)
Dermatopathology/Neuropathology (2 blocks)
Clinical Pathology (14 Blocks)
Hematopathology (3 blocks)
Transfusion Medicine (2 blocks)
Clinical Chemistry/Management (2 blocks)
Microbiology (2 blocks)
Molecular Pathology (1 block)
Immunopathology (2 blocks)
VA Hospital Clinical Pathology (2 blocks)
Electives (5 blocks)
May include research and/or additional advanced AP or CP rotations.
Advanced subspecialty training is offered on an elective basis in all areas of anatomic and clinical pathology Service responsibilities in advanced subspecialty training are similar to those of fellowships in a subspecialty area of pathology. Because of increased experience, the resident will be able to assume a higher level of responsibility and interface with clinicians at a more senior and in-depth level. The following are examples of some of the options available:
Assume responsibility for interdepartmental conferences.
"Hot Seat"/preliminary diagnosis.
Round daily on the wards and/or the lab with a ward team or sub specialty consult team.
Complete a laboratory management or outcomes project or a clinical/pathologic study suitable for publication and presentation at a national meeting.
Semi-independent frozen section interpretation.
Research / Elective
Go to Research Investigators to see the research interests of individual faculty.
Residents are encouraged to become involved in research. Elective time may be used for research training or in depth study in a subspecialty area. In straight anatomic and clinical pathology programs, at least one year of elective time is available for research training whereas in the combined AP/CP program six months of elective time is available. Clinical pathologic studies and developmental projects can be carried out during short elective blocks; whereas, one or more years of research time is recommended for in-depth laboratory investigation. The opportunity for clinical pathologic studies or developmental projects exists in all clinical areas of the department and residents are given travel support to present abstracts at national meetings.
The Department also offers a Physician Scientist Training Pathway (PSTP) for those interested in an academic career with an emphasis on basic or translational research.
Active areas of laboratory investigation within the department include cellular and molecular immunology, vascular biology, molecular virology, hemostasis/thrombosis, experimental neuropathology, and cell and tumor biology. A variety of NIH funded intramural programs are available for additional years of research training. These include: 1) Program in Hemostasis Thrombosis for Academic Trainees, 2) Tumor Biology Training Grant, 3) Cardiovascular Center Training Grant, 4) Physician Scientist Program Award, 5) Immunology Training Program, 6) Parasitology Training Program, and 7) Infectious Disease Training Program.
Teaching
Residents participate in teaching medical students, medical technology students, and allied health students. A minimum amount of teaching is required; however, residents may ask for additional teaching responsibilities. Residents who are especially good and/or interested teachers will be called upon by the medical technology staff to lecture, give continuing education sessions, and lead group discussions. Many opportunities exist for informal teaching of medical students, clinical residents, and fellow residents.
On-Call and Other Responsibilities
Residents on anatomic pathology services cover the weekend autopsy service on a rotational basis. Residents on university surgical pathology service, handle night and weekend frozen sections with faculty, and are on call every third night for this service. Clinical pathology night and weekend call is taken on a rotational basis by residents on clinical pathology services. One resident covers all laboratories and is available after hours by pager to manage laboratory related problems, to consult with clinicians concerning laboratory tests or procedures, and to interface between clinicians and technologists. The resident is always called first; however, faculty are available by pager for backup.
Pathology residents are appointed to the following Hospital Advisory Subcommittees on a rotational basis with residents from other departments: Infection Control, Cost Containment, Information Systems, and Transfusion. On these committees they are involved in discussion of clinical problems as they relate to the laboratories.
Space and Facilities
The department occupies approximately 100,000 sq. ft. of space in the Medical Laboratory Building, Medical Research Center and University Hospital, and approximately 30,000 sq. ft. of space in the adjacent Veteran's Administration Hospital.
- Most of the diagnostic laboratories occupy approximately 40,000 sq. ft. of laboratories on the fifth and sixth floors of University Hospital in close proximity to the operating rooms and wards, including a modern, spacious laboratory adjacent to the surgical operating rooms to enhance frozen section and surgical pathology consultative functions, and new state-of-the-art laboratories for diagnostic microbiology and for molecular pathology.
- The department is well-equipped with numerous multi-headed teaching microscopes, modern projection and audio-visual equipment, and computer based teaching facilities. The Clinical Laboratory Sciences Program is an integral unit of the Department of Pathology.
- The department currently occupies approximately 30,000 sq. ft. of research laboratory space that contains the equipment and materials to carry out the sophisticated technology of modern cellular and molecular pathology/diagnosis. In addition to individual research laboratories, there are departmental core laboratories for hybridoma production, isotope preparation and handling, recombinant DNA studies, fluorescence activated cell sorting, tissue culture, immunofluorescence microscopy, special coagulation, and ultra structural studies. Also available are the College of Medicine Core Laboratories for protein sequencing and peptide analysis, DNA cloning and analysis, gene vector core, transgenic mouse core, laboratory animal care and other specialized support facilities. In addition, the department occupies a modern electron microscopy laboratory in the adjacent Veterans Administration Hospital which houses a new analytical electron microscope that has transmission, scanning, and x-ray probe capacities.
Faculty
There are 51 faculty in the department: 26 MD, 13 MD/PhD and 12 PhD. Subspecialty areas are represented as follows: Autopsy - 1, Clinical Chemistry - 3, Cytopathology - 3, Dermatopathology - 2, Forensic Pathology - 1, Hematopathology - 3, Immunopathology - 3, Microbiology -3, Molecular Pathology - 3, Neuropathology - 4, Ophthalmic Pathology - 1, Renal Pathology - 1, Surgical Pathology - 9, and Transfusion Medicine - 4.