Genitourinary (GU) Pathology Fellowship
Aims Statement
The aims of our Genitourinary Selective Pathology Fellowship program are: 1) To provide in-depth education and advanced training in Genitourinary Pathology, to the fellow who intends to practice Pathology in an academic or community setting. 2) Foster passion for Genitourinary Pathology by selecting and promoting residents with a strong record and recommendations from their residency program. 3) To encourage fellows to participate in clinical interactions with other members of the clinical team and train them for future roles where their subspecialty training and research skills can be optimally utilized as a part of a larger clinical team. 4) To encourage fellows to participate and collaborate with physician-scientists in clinical, translational, and basic science research endeavors. 5) To foster fellows to engage with professional societies and present their research. 6) To provide opportunities for quality improvement related activities including mock CAP inspections.
Overview
Our ACGME-accredited Selective Pathology - Genitourinary (GU) Fellowship is a one-year program with comprehensive training in diagnostic genitourinary (GU) pathology that includes in-depth exposure to all aspects of the specialty.
The Genitourinary Pathology Service includes the full range of urologic tumors, non-neoplastic diseases, and lesions, with special emphasis on complex urologic oncologic cases. The fellow is given graduated responsibility for handling cases. Strengths of the program include depth of clinical material, diversity of disease spectrum, subspecialty-focused sign-out with expert faculty, access to clinical, translational, and basic science research opportunities, and top medical school and residency program which provides training opportunities, and diverse in-house fellowship programs. The fellow is expected to participate in independent and collaborative research, including the initiation and completion of at least one research project during the course of the year.
Program Description
The Genitourinary Pathology Fellowship Program is structured to provide basic and advanced core training over a one-year period and to ensure proficiency in practice in tumors and non-neoplastic lesions of the male and female urologic and male reproductive organs (gross pathology, frozen section diagnosis, histology, immunohistochemistry, and certain aspects of molecular diagnostics).
The clinical responsibilities the fellow assumes during the year of training include:
- Sign-out of in-house genitourinary pathology cases with appropriate faculty supervision
- Review of all genitourinary consult cases
- Review all GU faculty consult cases (Drs. Shah and Kapur)
- Presentation and participation in GU Pathology Consensus Conferences, Journal Club, Academic hour, and at Urologic and RCC Tumor Boards and Combined Modality conferences
- Grossing of selected genitourinary oncology specimens
- Participation in genitourinary and general pathologic intraoperative consultation
Participation in research project(s)
Research
The fellow is encouraged to participate in one or more research projects related to genitourinary pathology or quality improvement-related projects, submit and present the abstracts to national scientific meetings, and publish the data in peer-reviewed pathology/biomedical journals.
There are multiple opportunities for fellows to participate and collaborate in research including participating in ongoing UTSW’s Kidney Cancer Program. For candidates with advanced research interests, a second research year of fellowship may be considered and KCP offers multiple research tracks to choose from.
The Kidney Cancer Program at UTSW was awarded a prestigious Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2016. SPOREs are the flagship of the National Cancer Institute translational program, and the awards are typically about $10-12 million. There are two SPOREs for kidney cancer in the country, one at UTSW and the other at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. The award reflects the depth and excellence of research at UT Southwestern, which in 2018 was recognized by Nature Index as the top institution globally for published research.
Requirements
Prospective candidates must have completed an ACGME-accredited residency in anatomic pathology, be board-eligible or board certified in anatomic or anatomic and clinical pathology by the American Board of Pathology, and be eligible for a training medical license to practice in Texas by the beginning of the Genitourinary Pathology Fellowship Program. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center will support a J-1 visa.
Benefits
- Financial support to attend conferences
- Educational funds
- Laptop
- Additional benefits dependent upon program