Rotations

All rotations are done at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. The core of training is provided by the clinical rotation core accounting for the vast majority of the training year. This core consists of frozen section, “hot seat”, gross room supervision, and consultation case rotations. During the frozen section rotation, the fellow is responsible for assessing, preparing and interpreting frozen sections with the assistance of ancillary staff and house staff, under supervision from faculty.

The primary fellow function during the gross room supervision rotation is responsibility for oversight of more junior house staff in their specimen grossing activities. In addition, they cover after hour frozen sections with faculty backup. The “hot seat” rotation necessitates an evaluation of all slides generated for the day with the issuing of a preliminary diagnosis, which is available to medical center personnel. The consult case rotations deal with difficult cases submitted to the faculty for their expert opinion or review of those cases where the patient is being referred to UI Hospitals & Clinics for definitive therapy.

Elective

Elective time can be utilized for research as well as rotations covering other sub-disciplines such as dermatopathology, immunopathology, or molecular pathology.

Education/Conferences

The fellows are required to staff various tumor board conferences presenting the pertinent pathological findings from patients being discussed. In addition, there is a weekly conference with the Director of Surgical Pathology where cases are discussed as well as issues pertaining to laboratory administration, personnel supervision and other topics relevant to the early days of surgical pathology practice.

The fellows also present Surgical Pathology Gross and Microscopic Conference to the residents twice annually. They are encouraged to participate in the daily conference schedule as their clinical assignments permit with some of these activities representing didactic type presentations given by faculty for house staff.

Research Opportunities

The opportunity to participate in research is provided within the structure of the program and is encouraged. In addition, the fellow may elect to spend any elective time pursuing research projects.