The Post-Sophomore Fellowship is a year long experience in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. PSF’s spend the year rotating through multiple services within the department including surgical pathology (and its subspecialties), autopsy, the blood bank, clinical microbiology, hematology, hematopathology, clinical chemistry, and cytopathology,. learning from and participating in the day to day work on each service. The PSF is given responsibility virtually identical to that of a first year resident in pathology with oversight provided by senior residents, pathology assistants, and attending pathologists. There are opportunities for research, if desired, and usually a couple of months of elective time to be spent working in an area of interest within the department.
The pathology department processes approximately 20,000 surgical specimens every year representing a wide variety of neoplastic and non-neoplastic processes from all major organ systems, with residents and PSF’s participating in the diagnostic process for each case from gross examination to microscopic analysis. Also, The Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office is based in the department and completes at least 500 forensic autopsies per year, with direct resident/PSF participation in a majority of cases. There are also 50-70 hospital autopsies completed each year, in which residents and PSF’s play a very active role. On the clinical pathology services (chemistry, hematology, microbiology, etc.) the PSF serves as a liaison between the laboratory and the clinical teams by finding answers to questions that may impact laboratory testing and providing information regarding test methodologies and interpretation for physician colleagues (all with faculty pathologist guidance). There are also opportunities to participate in the subspecialty hematopathology service to gain experience in lymph node and bone marrow pathology. Additionally, there are abundant educational opportunities including daily lectures or other teaching conferences from attending pathologists and occasionally senior residents, covering a variety of topics in pathology. There are abundant opportunities to hone public speaking skills, both through case presentations at one of the many subspecialty tumor boards and by presenting interesting cases and journal articles to pathology resident colleagues, as well as opportunities to participate in medical student education such as pathology laboratories if interested.
During the PSF year, the students officially take a leave of absence from their medical school curriculum and spend the entire academic year (July-June) working in our department, but this is not regarded as an interruption in their medical education, as these are educational fellowships. PSF’s are awarded a stipend for the year to cover living expenses, etc and have access to standard benefits also given to pathology residents including health insurance. If you are interested in applying for the position, please contact Shannon Wetzel-Eierman (the Residency Program Coordinator), Dr. Douglas C. Miller, MD, PhD, (the Residency Program Director), or Dr. Deepthi Rao, MD, Associate Residency Program Director. They will be able to provide more information about the application process.
