Community and Hospital Pathology

Catalog Description:  

This 2 week course focuses on the daily practice of community laboratory medicine and to understand how anatomic and clinical pathology integrates into a holistic patient care model.  This includes the daily and long-term issues facing both urban and rural hospital laboratories.  The rotation is primarily based at the clinical and anatomic laboratories at Aspirus St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, MN.  Discussion of rural laboratory medicine topics focus primarily on issues and practices at North Shore Health in Grand Marais, MN.   
The student will spend time at the bench with medical laboratory scientists learning how routine specimens are evaluated and reports generated in hematology, blood bank, chemistry, and microbiology.  Students receive additional instruction from pathologist assistants learning the intricacies of frozen sections, gross examination, and tissue selection for pathologic evaluation.  Students spend the majority of their time  in microscopic evaluation of all specimen types to learn how tissue diagnoses are generated, from small biopsy specimens to large oncologic surgeries.  Tumor board attendance/participation is required at least once in the two weeks, to observe how multidisciplinary teams make patient care decisions.
Teaching modalities include direct participation in case discussion, specimen preparation and Tumor Board discussions. There will be time for self study to complete UWorld questions and prepare for case presentations. Assessment will include a case presentation and evaluation of professionalism.
All students should leave this elective with a greater understanding of the role of the pathologist and integration of pathology into their future career.

Note: A day of observation at the North Shore Hospital will not be available each period and it is optional.

   Syllabus

Note: Contact the Course Coordinator for any syllabi for previous years. 

View site addresses by clicking on the site name below or visiting the site codes table.

Typical weekly schedule/Delivery Mode:  8:00-4:00, with one half-day off each week for independent learning

Direct patient care:  No

Consent Requirement: Arranged. Please submit a request to schedule using the form linked below.

LAMP 7130 Arranged Electives Form

Allow repetition of course: No

Course equivalency: N/A