The Dermatopathology rotation is intended to provide the pathology resident with an in-depth exposure to gross and microscopic diagnosis of cutaneous diseases.
The pathology resident will gross skin specimens with an emphasis on large or educational specimens. All of the above duties will be shared with the dermatopathology fellow and/or dermatology resident rotating on the service.
Resident Responsibilities
Each morning the resident will review the slides before sign-out and commit to a diagnosis. The residents are expected to be able to defend their diagnoses, according to their level of training, and to read literature on challenging cases, including journal review. The resident will attend the sign-out sessions with the attending, which begins at 10:30 a.m.The pathology resident will gross skin specimens with an emphasis on large or educational specimens. All of the above duties will be shared with the dermatopathology fellow and/or dermatology resident rotating on the service.
Learning Objectives
At the completion of the rotation, the pathology resident will be able to:
- Develop a differential diagnosis for common inflammatory and neoplastic cutaneous diseases, based on histologic pattern analysis
- Understand the scope and limitations of histopathology of the skin
- Be conversant with terminology of dermatology and dermatopathology
- Correlate clinical and histopathologic changes
- Understand basic current concepts in skin disease
- Be proficient in the gross description and cutting in of skin biopsies
- Understand the role of ancillary techniques in dermatopathology (i.e., immunofluorescence, immunoperoxidase, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), electron microscopy (EM), fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) studies, comparative genomic analysis (CGA)).
Rotation Highlights
- Large volume of interesting cases
- Interaction with dermatology residents and fellow