Pathology

Curriculum

The Assistant in Pathology program integrates both didactic and clinical phases spanning 22 months. The didactic phase incorporates traditional classroom interaction with clinical and pathological skills development.

Graduates are required to pass the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) exam to practice as certified Pathologists’ Assistant. The (ASCP) offers the certification exam for pathologists’ assistants who graduated from NAACLS accredited programs. The ASCP certificate is valid for three years, renewal is through the ASCP Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) and is predicated on continuous medical education (CME). For more information about certification and maintenance programs, please visit: https://www.ascp.org/

MSBS-ASSISTANT IN PATHOLOGY PROGRAM
2023 Curriculum

Fall Semester (Year I)
Course Number	Course Name	Credit Hours
ANAT 5000	Anatomy for Physician Assistants	5
PHSL 5050	Human Physiology	3
INDI 8790	Basic and Advanced Light Microscopy	4
PATH 6060	Intro Surgical Pathology - Didactic	2
PATH 6080	Intro Postmortem Pathology (Hospital + Forensic) - Didactic	2
		16
Spring Semester (Year I)
Course Number	Course Name	Credit Hours
PATH 6770	Embryology and teratology	1
PATH 6060	Intro Surgical Pathology - Clinical	2
PATH 7125	Lab Management	4
PATH 6080	Intro Postmortem Pathology (Hospital + Forensic) - Clinical	2
		9
Summer  Semester (Year I)
Course Number	Course Name	Credit Hours
PATH 6890	Independent Study in Pathology	4
PATH 6060	Intro Surgical Pathology - Clinical	2
PATH 6080	Intro Postmortem Pathology (Hospital + Forensic) - clinical	2
		8
Fall Semester (Year II)
Course Number	Course Name	Credit Hours
PATH 6780	Histology and Cell Physiology	2
PATH 7130	Pathology	4
INDI 6980	Scholarly Project	3
PATH 6070	Intro Clinical Lab Medicine	2
		11
Spring Semester (Year II)
Course Number	Course Name	Credit Hours
PATH 6040	Pathology Assistants: Medical Ethics	1
PATH 6790	Histology and Cell Physiology	2
PATH 7130	Pathology	4
INDI 6980	Scholarly Project	3
		10

A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 in Assistant in Pathology coursework is required for graduation. Students whose cumulative GPA falls below 3.0 during any semester will be placed on academic probation. A full-time student on academic probation will have one or at most two semesters (excluding summer) to meet the cumulative GPA standard. A student failing to meet the standard will be subject to dismissal. A grade of C is the minimum passing grade for graduate courses.

To continue in Assistant in Pathology program, students must maintain the minimum GPA of at least 3.0 on every course and successfully complete the clinical rotation in surgical and autopsy pathology.

Course Description:

ANAT 5000- Anatomy for Physician Assist: 5 credits
Provides students with a working knowledge of the major anatomical regions and structures. Emphasis placed on the relationships of components as well as topographical and functional anatomy. Case studies will be utilized.

PHSL 5050: Human Physiology: 3 credits
Course Catalogue description:
This course addresses cellular, regulatory and organ system physiology including blood and immune system, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, renal reproductive and endocrine physiology.

INDI 8790: Basic and Advanced Light Microscopy: 4 credits
Course Catalogue description:
This course is intended to introduce histologic techniques related to tissue preparation for microscopic imaging including tissue fixation, processing, staining, microtomy, and the special techniques of histochemistry and immunocytochemistry for light microscopy.  The course will emphasize the use of light microscopes including brightfield, darkfield,phase-contrast, fluorescence, and differential contrast microscopy.  In addition, advanced microscopy techniques will be addressed including super resolution fluorescence, confocal, and multi-photon microscopies.  Analysis of tissue images and photography techniques will also be emphasized.  

Course description:
The course is intended to integrate basic histologic techniques to be utilized for a variety of microscopy applications such as tissue preparation for immunohistochemical labeling of cellular antigenic sites for brightfield microscopy and/or direct labeling of tissues with fluorescent probes for use with fluorescence microscopy.  The student will learn basic fixation of tissues, sectioning, and staining/labeling techniques for routine or special microscopic techniques.  It is expected that the course will teach students how to prepare tissues for microscopic investigation and how to analyze and to use photographic techniques to record observations.  The course is laboratory intensive, providing the student “hands on” experience to enhance didactic sessions. 

PATH 6060:  Intro Surgical Pathology: 6 credits
Course Catalogue description:
Introduces students to surgical pathology and cytology including gross evaluation of tissues, tissue processing and microscopic evaluation of diseased human tissues to render a diagnosis, recommend treatment and evaluate prognosis. In addition, students will attend and/or present case materials at conferences.

Course Description:
This course introduces students to surgical pathology including tissue gross evaluation, dissection, description, and microscopic evaluation. This course covers a wide variety of topics including but not limited to laboratory safety, medical terminology, concepts in histology processing, and concepts in immunohistochemistry. The course provides supervised training on frozen sections, manual and surgical saw, submission of tissue for ancillary studies such as electron microscopy, flow cytometry, cytogenetics, microbiology, molecular biology, and gross and microscopic slides photography. Moreover, students will be involved in keeping enough supplies in the gross room and update the maintenance charts. In this course, students will present cases and a project using the educational methodology, attend tumor board meeting and will help residents in preparing the necessary material including photos for gross and microscopic slides.

PATH 6080:  Intro Postmortem Pathology (Hospital and Forensics): 6 credits 
Course Catalogue description:
An introductory course designed to acquaint students with autopsy procedures. It consists of a series of lectures, demonstrations, and readings pertaining to human autopsy. Students will be involved in the performance of autopsies, the selection of appropriate tissues for microscopic examination, microscopic examination of tissues, rendering a diagnosis and completing autopsy reports. The autopsies are performed at the Lucas County Coroner's Office.

PATH 6040: Pathology Assistants: Medical Ethics: 1 credit
Course Catalogue description: 
This course is an introduction to medical ethics for the pathology assistant. Focus is on the issues faced by the pathologist and pathology assistants. The course will be seminar based and will involve presentations and case discussions. 

PATH 7125: Lab Management :4 credits

This course provides students with the background information needed to step into management or supervisory roles in a laboratory setting. The five management topics covered in this course are Operations, Informatics, Compliance, Personnel Management, and Financial Management. This course is online only. 

PATH 7130:  Pathology : 8 credits

This course is designed to acquaint students with the basic concepts of general and systems-based pathology using didactic lectures to teach general pathologic mechanisms as well as organ specific pathology. Students will learn to correlate normal anatomy, gross examination and microscopic diagnosis. An emphasis will be placed on cancer staging using CAP cancer protocols. Students will continue to perform gross examination throughout this course allowing them to connect and apply concepts from their didactic sessions with the specimens they are dissecting.

PATH 6890: Independent Study in Pathology: 4 credits
Course Catalogue description:
Intensive study in the field of interest, including theoretical and experimental work. May be repeated for credit.

Course Description:
This course provides the student an opportunity to do intensive study in the field of interest, including theoretical and experimental aspects. The pre-rotation assignment will be agreed upon between instructor and student to include the review of recent literature related to student’s chosen field of training and submission of a weekly manuscript related to the topic(s) agreed upon.

PATH 6780 & 6790:  Histology and Cell Physiology: 4 credits
Course Description:
This course is intended to introduce histologic techniques including tissue fixation, processing, staining, microtomy, and the special techniques of histochemistry and immunocytochemistry for light microscopy; in addition, basic optics and the use of the bright field, phase contrast, and fluorescence microscopy will be address. The course will integrate microscopic anatomy.
The course is intended to integrate microscopic anatomy with tissue-specific physiology. The course schedule is designed to meld with the disease content of the organ systems of the medical school curriculum to provide a basis of normal microscopic anatomy (histology) and specific functions of organ-specific cell types. There is a strong emphasis on the independent study of cell physiology to accompany didactic presentations of the microscopic anatomy including utilization of virtual tissue slides. 

INDI 6980: Scholarly Project: 6 credits
Course/Catalogue Description:
This course provides an opportunity for the student to develop an in-depth scholarly project to fulfill the research requirements of the Master of Science in Biomedical Science (MSBS) degree program.  This course may be repeated for credit. 

PATH 6070:  Intro Clinical Lab Medicine: 2 credits
Course Catalogue description:
An introductory course designed to acquaint students with the laboratory tests that are available in the clinical laboratory, prioritization of test ordering, how the tests are performed and their usefulness in clinical diagnosis and clinical investigation.

Course Description:
An introductory course designed to acquaint students with the laboratory tests that are available in the clinical laboratory, prioritization of test ordering, how the tests are performed and their usefulness in clinical diagnosis and clinical investigation. Students will rotate through hematology, chemistry, transfusion services, immunology, and microbiology in the Department of Pathology, and attend departmental conferences and lectures provided during the rotation.  Attend various interdisciplinary conferences as assigned.  

PATH  6770: Embryology and Teratology:  1 credit
Course/Catalogue Description:
This 1 credit hour course is designed to lay foundational knowledge of early human embryonic and fetal development, and occurrence of birth defects resulting from genetic and environmental causes. A basic understanding of early molecular and cellular basis of normal and abnormal embryonic and fetal development is fundamental to understanding the dilemma of birth defects and fetal antecedents of disease susceptibility.  Furthermore, understanding human pre-implantation development has important implications for human infertility and assisted reproductive technology (ART), and for human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based therapies.