Mission

To provide residents and fellows with strong and diverse clinical, laboratory and research exposure through didactics, service work and preparing them for their future practices in the community practice or academic setting.

Program Aims

• Provide the fellow with the scientific knowledge, technical skills and administrative experience necessary to practice cytopathology
• Teach fellows to integrate their general medical knowledge with cytomorphology and to proceed in a logical fashion to obtain the optimal diagnostic information from the cytologic specimen
• Promote the development of investigational skills
• Promote the development of teaching and presentation skills

Goals and Objectives

The primary objective of the cytopathology fellowship is to educate fellows to become competent cytopathologists capable of practicing in either an academic center or private practice setting; to be proficient in effective communication with clinical colleagues; and to be self-motivated and diligent in continuing education and clinical research.

The program has four major goals, along with our training emphasis on competency-based educational outcome assessment:

• Train the fellow to effectively apply ancillary studies and offer new technologies to cytology specimens
• Train the fellow to effectively use ancillary studies such as microbiology, immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry and cell image analysis and DNA based technologies as adjuncts to cytomorphology diagnosis
• Participate in research projects in cytology, prepare interesting case reports with reviews of the literature and present a research project at a local or national meeting
• Assist in the training of Pathology residents in cytology by supervising them in procedures, slide reviews and by giving the opportunity to present at intra-and interdepartmental conferences

The fellowship emphasizes training centered on competency-based educational objectives and dependable educational outcome assessment. The fellowship is divided into two rotations, Aspiration Cytology (FNA) and Exfoliative Cytology (non-FNA), each approximately six months in length. Fellows alternate on each rotation on a 4-week basis. Each rotation has a defined set of competency-based objectives, provides an appropriate educational experience and then assesses competency utilizing a competency-based rotation evaluation form. Educational goals are distributed to fellows and faculty yearly.

At the completion of the fellowship it is expected that the fellow will have achieved a level of skill such that they are competent to enter the practice of cytopathology without direct supervision.