Third and Fourth Year Teaching
Third Year
The third year at UMass Chan is primarily focused on the required clinical clerkships. Pathology teaching in this setting is most often integrated with the other teaching activities that occur during a specific clinical rotation. For example, students may be exposed to pathology through attendance at various conferences such as Tumor Board, review of patients biopsies during work rounds, attendance at frozen sections during the surgery clerkship, etc. In some cases, a one (or more) day pathology “observership” may be able to be arranged depending on the availability of elective time set aside during some clinical clerkships. Please refer to section on Pathology Observerships under First and Second Year Teaching.
Fourth Year Electives
The Pathology Department sponsors electives for medical students from UMass Chan and other schools. In most cases, these electives are done during the 4th year. There are several reasons why a medical student would want to choose an elective in pathology: 1) an elective (or post-sophomore fellowship) in pathology is a virtual prerequisite for any student who plans to apply for a PGY1 position in a pathology residency program; 2) many residency programs in various clinical fields place a high value on having some pathology experience beyond the 2nd year of medical school; and 3) a pathology elective can provide an opportunity to revisit and expand upon basic science knowledge beyond that taught in the first two years of medical school.
A variety of different 4-week elective experiences can be arranged, depending on the preferences and needs of the student. An elective can be taken in either the Anatomic Pathology or Laboratory Medicine divisions. In Anatomic Pathology, electives can be arranged that include both surgical pathology and autopsy experiences, as well as more focused exposure to subspecialty areas such as cytopathology, neuropathology, etc. Individually designed electives that combine pathology experience with other clinical areas can also be arranged (e.g. radiology/pathology; nephrology/renal pathology; neurology/neuropathology, etc). Students interested in either a standard 4-week pathology elective, a combined pathology-clinical elective or in a shorter observership in pathology should contact either the pathology residency program director (Dr. Zhong Jiang) or the appropriate faculty member responsible for a pathology subspecialty area of interest. Since a majority of the pathology electives are individually designed, UMass Chan students should refer to the most recent edition of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine Student Handbook for further instructions.