Mission and Goals
MISSION
Our mission is to prepare residents for careers in academic or community practice, with broad experience and competence in both anatomic and clinical pathology. Our trainees and graduates are committed to the interests and benefits of the patients they serve, with a full understanding of modern pathology practices and the ability to continue to grow and develop their professional knowledge and competence throughout their careers.
PROGRAM GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
To provide the optimal environment for residents to acquire:
- A solid foundation for the understanding of human disease processes.
- Explain pathologic processes that apply to individual patients, as well as to the general patient population.
- The ability to analyze laboratory and clinical data.
- The ability to interpret laboratory data for clinicopathologic correlation.
- A knowledge base necessary to practice clinical and anatomic pathology in either a private or academic setting
- Problem solving and critical analysis skills necessary for the practice of pathology in a setting of graduated responsibilities
Teaching is an absolute priority in our program, both for faculty and for residents. We are small enough that virtually all members of our department interact on an almost daily basis. We have a strong series of didactics and conferences, including interdisciplinary conferences such as our various general and subspecialty Tumor Boards, where residents present cases with assistance and backup from faculty. Residents participate regularly in the undergraduate medical student instruction, directing weekly small group discussions that complement the faculty lecture series. Finally, we have very popular and active elective and required clerkships in pathology for 3rd and 4th year medical students. We generally have a new group of 10-20 clerks every two weeks and our residents are essential participants in the teaching of these medical students.
We expect all residents to participate in original research. To this end, we have monthly research conferences focusing on resident research efforts, didactics on practical approaches to research, and a monthly Journal Club. Resident research is formally presented at our annual Peter J. Goldblatt, Resident Scientific Day, and then serves as a vehicle for resident presentations at national pathology meetings and conferences.
PHILOSOPHY
Our clinical experiences are hands-on and faculty-intense. This includes immediate faculty supervision during grossing during a resident's initial surgical pathology rotations, direct patient encounters and practice at fine needle aspirations during cytopathology rotations, daily one-on-one teaching sessions during clinical pathology rotations, and extensive teaching collections and archives in neuropathology and other subspecialties. To complement the strengths of the University of Toledo Medical Center, we have arranged off-campus rotations for high-volume community surgical pathology (The Toledo Hospital), forensic pathology (the Lucas County Coroner's Office), pediatric pathology (Akron Children's Hospital), dermatopathology (Pinkus Laboratories), blood banking and microbiology (The Toledo Hospital). Our graduates consistently place in highly regarded fellowships and employment opportunities