Curriculum

Rotation schedule

Surgical Pathology Fellowship rotations are divided into four-week blocks. A typical rotation schedule includes:

Rotation	Length
Frozen section laboratory	5 to 6 blocks
Sent-in consultation service	1 block
Non-directed consultation service	1 block
Electives in subspecialty areas of your choice	5 to 6 blocks

Rotation descriptions

Frozen section laboratory

Mayo Clinic has a unique way of signing out the surgical specimens received from the operating rooms. The majority of surgical specimens are grossed in and signed out at the frozen section lab on the same day. The advantages of evaluating specimens in this manner include increased communication with clinical colleagues and rapid turnaround time, facilitating the immediate development of therapeutic management. It is important to note that not all specimens are frozen or even signed out at the frozen section. Ultimately the Surgical Pathology fellow is an integral player in the frozen section practice: supervising grossing and tissue processing, performing the initial review of slides, and communicating with the attending pathologist, surgeons, oncologists and other clinicians.

Sent-in consultation service

Fellows are responsible for reviewing previously obtained biopsy and surgical material of Mayo Clinic patients. This rotation includes interaction with most of the anatomic pathologists in the Mayo Clinic practice and includes a strong quality assurance program.

Non-directed consultation service

Mayo Clinic receives approximately 60,000 outside consultations every year. On this rotation, fellows manage approximately 12 consults a day from different specialties with graduating degrees of responsibility.

Elective in subspecialty areas of your choice

Subspecialties available for elective rotations include:

• Bone and soft tissue pathology
• Breast pathology
• Cardiovascular pathology
• Cytogenetics
• Cytopathology
• Dermatopathology
• Endocrine pathology
• Gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary pathology
• Gynecologic pathology
• Head and neck pathology
• Hematopathology
• Lymph node pathology
• Molecular anatomic pathology
• Molecular genetics
• Neuropathology
• Ophthalmic pathology
• Pulmonary pathology
• Renal pathology
• Urologic Pathology

Didactic training

Fellows are required to attend several conferences related to general surgical pathology. They include the surgical pathology unknown slide conference, journal club, gross pathology conference, interesting case conference, and frozen section working group meeting.

Fellows are encouraged to attend the resident core curriculum lecture series, as their schedules allow. Delivered four or five mornings a week, the series covers a range of topics in anatomic and clinical pathology.

Fellows also have access to several extensive teaching files that contain glass slides demonstrating the entire spectrum of neoplastic and non-neoplastic pathological diseases.

Research training

The wealth of surgical pathology material at Mayo Clinic offers limitless opportunities for research projects. Mayo Clinic researchers collaborate with large, active clinical and research groups in all subspecialty areas.

Evaluation

Fellows are evaluated at the completion of each rotation block. Evaluations assess fellow competence in:

• Patient care
• Medical knowledge
• Professionalism
• Systems-based practice
• Practice-based learning and improvement
• Interpersonal and communication skills

The program director meets with each fellow quarterly to review evaluations and discuss professional growth.

• July 23, 2012
• ART944057