howard path program

[jerry Pi]

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hi, there, does anybody have idea about the program? i got an iv there.many thanks.😍

 

[KeratinPearls]

So, no one knows nada about this program. This program sees 6-7,000 surgical specimens yearly. How can one expect to be a competent pathologist training at a program that sees such a small number of specimens. Also, the program has no fellowships. I don't know anything about the CP training. Can someone help me dissect this program apart based on the caseload and how a program like Howard will prepare me for a career as a pathologist? I know the job market sucks. It doesn't help if the training you receive is subpar. Is this so with Howard? Will I be able to find a job coming from this program?

From pathologytraining.org:

"Howard University Hospital, located on the main university campus, is a comprehensive general hospital, Level I trauma center with a bed capacity of 350. Annual accessions in the Department of Pathology include approximately 50-80 necropsies; 6,000-7,000 surgical specimens; 4,000-5,000 cytologic cases and 850,000 clinical laboratory examinations. The diagnostic laboratories of the Department of Pathology occupy a total of 15,000 sq. ft. in the University Hospital, which is connected to the College of Medicine."

 

[yaah]

Yeah, that's not very much. I guess it would depend on how many residents they have. If they have 3 per year, that's 12 total, figure by the fourth year 2-3 have left the program or transferred (as this often happens at smaller programs), so that's about 10 total residents. So unless they are sharing specimens, those 6-7k specimens have to be divided up. That's not much. For the boards, I estimated I saw about 12-14,000 specimens during my four years, and that doesn't include the consults and all that. You would also have to participate in a high percentage of the autopsies that came through to get your numbers.

But then again maybe they have really good teaching and get all the residents to see every case, etc. I am frankly surprised a program can get accredited with 6-7k specimens. That averages out to only about 20-30 total specimens every day (not including weekends).

 

[DrBloodmoney]

We see some of their residents in our rotations and from what they tell me:
1. Little to no educational activity (lectures, unknowns, etc).
2. Recent upheaval in surgery departments/ hospital admin causing many surgeons to leave = even less specimens (so 7000 is probably too optimistic now)
3. General resident dissatisfaction with the program.

This is all secondhand knowledge from two residents who I know there. YMMV

 

[jux]

The thing about a small case load is not the number of specimens but the variety and complexity. The residents can gross/see as many cases as residents at a program with 100k specimens, but they won't gain as much because they are missing out in certain areas. No matter where you go, you will learn a lot by reading, but it is better to do stuff.

 

[yaah]

Not really though. When I am on service, I see generally dozens of cases per day, including big and small cases. Like I said, it added up to about 12-14000 over the ~15 months of required AP surg path time. That's almost 1,000 cases per month, which is well over 7,000 a year, if every resident has a similar experience. This is why, generally, people say a program should have at least 20,000 specimens/year to have an adequate volume for training purposes.