Pathology and Laboratory Medicine's role in the VIC
Level 1: "Foundations"
The pre-clinical portion of the VIC. Pathologists are essential to this level, serving as course director in one of the Foundation Courses and as a whole, teaching/facilitating well over 200 hours of the pre-clinical coursework. Pathology residents also play a vital role through engaged learning sessions such as gross organ pathology/clinical correlations and case-based small groups.
Level 2: "Clinical Clerkship"
Clinical clerkships are hands-on learning that occur during the latter years of medical school. Students move from the classroom to a hospital setting. The medical student will rotate through The Block Clerkship and Bridge Clerkship, designed to emphasize clinical applications as the medical students' knowledge base begins to blend "Foundation" knowledge with clinical experience.
Level 3: "Advanced Integration"
Provides students with additional responsibilities for patient care, including two acting internships, a surgical subspecialty rotation, and clinical and/or non-clinical electives. Students also fulfill a requirement for scholarly work in teaching or research.
Pathology's Integration into Medical Student Education
Teaching
Pathologists – attendings, house staff officers and student fellows alike – give lectures, teach in laboratories, and facilitate small group colloquia in Cell and Molecular Biology, Human Structure and Function (gross anatomy, microanatomy and physiology), Attacks and Defenses (anemias and general pathology), Nutrition, Metabolism and Gastrointestinal (includes endocrine pathology), Connections (skin, bone and joint), Cardio-Respiratory-Renal, and Generations (includes placental and childhood diseases, genital tracts, breast, hematological diseases, and aging). In addition, the Department offers electives for medical students in the fourth clinical year.
Gross Pathology Museum
We have a Virtual Gross Pathology Museum with indexed images of our teaching specimens, searchable by course, lab, organ system, disease, and pathology. It includes high-quality images with labels and relevant radiological images.
Virtual Microscope
Our department created a digital image for each of the microscopic slides in the student slide collection. Students may access the slides using a “virtual microscope,” which allows continuous magnification from roughly 1X to 40X objective, and comparisons with other slides in the set, including normal slides from histology. Students may use the virtual microscope anywhere there is a computer and can view the slides in small or large groups.