Surgical Pathology

• Yuri Persidsky, MD, PhD (Chairman)
• Daniela Proca, MD
• Israh Akhtar, MD
• Laura Barry, MD
• Nikolina Dioufa, MD  
• Jared R. Hassler, MD
• Jian Jeff Fu, MD, PhD
• Maria F. Gonzalez, MD
• Mehri Mollaee, MD
• Nirag. Jhala, MD
• Yuan Rong, MD, PhD

The goals of the surgical pathology rotations are to train residents to become competent surgical pathologists with excellent skills in microscopic and gross specimen diagnosis; to impart competency in the required technical skills including specimen prosection, frozen section preparation and photomicrography; to have the resident achieve an understanding of the application of the associated special procedures including molecular pathology, immunopathology, and electron microscopy; and to impart a knowledge of anatomic pathology laboratory management and the technical skills upon which these laboratories are dependent. Additional goals are to develop in the residents a strong knowledge base with emphasis upon the disease processes and patient management that rely upon tissue examination and to achieve facility in communication with clinicians including the authorship of surgical pathology reports.

The surgical pathology rotation consists of 14 blocks with a total of more than 16,000 cases of a wide variety of body sites and pathologic processes. There is a three-day rotation system where the resident performs frozen sections, gross and microscopic evaluation.

Residents are trained in surgical pathology in the classic “apprenticeship” method and are responsible for their own cases from accessioning to sign-out. In the beginning, residents learn the essentials of prosection from the senior residents and faculty, with the Surgical Pathology manual as a guide. The first step in increasing responsibility is independent prosection. The staff pathologist is available throughout training for consultation and guidance. Microscopic evaluation of the glass slides in all cases is performed first by the resident and then together with the attending from the beginning of the training. Although residents are not responsible for final diagnostic decisions, the requirement for them to produce a written diagnosis or a differential diagnosis on each case lays the foundation for assuming increased responsibility to discuss their cases with the submitting physician. Residents are additionally responsible for independent prosection of increasingly complex cases and communication of results to clinicians, especially during intraoperative consultation. Senior residents are responsible for taking the initiative in requesting special stains, including immunohistochemical stains, increased interaction with clinicians, as well as instructing younger trainees in prosection and diagnosis.

Residents also experience increased responsibility in case presentation for interdepartmental conferences and outside conferences (regional pathology society). Senior residents serve on Temple University Hospital committees. Residents present cases at the multidisciplinary tumor boards (weekly) and radiology (monthly) conferences.

Residents are encouraged to write up case reports for journal publication. They are also encouraged to work with faculty on research projects for presentation at national meetings.

The anatomic pathology faculty, on a rotating basis, provides didactic conferences daily at 8am.  These topics include subspecialties in surgical pathology, laboratory management, gross pathology and others.