Curriculum

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Trainee experience

The Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency is a full-time 36-month program. Residents are provided with at least 2,000 hours of supervised clinical experience in laboratory animal medicine and at least 200 hours of didactic training in the form of seminars, journal club, clinical conferences, and board preparation sessions. Didactic sessions are presented in person and by video or teleconference. Residents also complete a mentored research project including experimental design, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

The residency also includes focused areas of concentration. For each concentration, residents are under the direct supervision of residency faculty members who direct their study and work. Each concentration lasts a defined period of time, depending on the specific topic, and includes didactic approaches, as well as opportunities to translate didactic knowledge into practice. This is accomplished through discussion, self-study, problem-solving exercises, and application of knowledge to actual challenges and workload associated with the concentration area.

The curriculum is taught in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and is designed to align with ACLAM's Role Delineation Document.

Curriculum enhancements

Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences is committed to developing and maintaining the best education programs. The curriculum and other aspects of this program are assessed constantly and changed as necessary to ensure the highest quality training.

Schedule and hours

Residents are expected to be on-site during normal business hours and extended hours may be required on occasion. Independent learning and assignments often occur outside of this time frame. Residents also participate in the weekend and evening on-call schedule.

Department and faculty

The Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency at Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences is coordinated and taught primarily by the clinical and academic staff and faculty of Mayo Clinic's Department of Comparative Medicine and the University of Minnesota Research Animal Resources.

Visiting professors and lecturers

A hallmark of higher education excellence is the breadth and depth of information and experience provided to residents by faculty and visiting experts. Many prominent professors visit Mayo Clinic each year to lecture on their areas of medical and scientific expertise.

Residents of Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences are encouraged to learn from these valuable resources by attending relevant conferences, lectures, and seminars prepared for students, residents, fellows, and consulting staff. Residents may also travel to the University of Minnesota for relevant lectures.

Facilities

Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, includes an extensive outpatient complex and substantial research and education facilities. This Mayo Clinic site is among the largest, most advanced medical centers in the world.

There are five vivaria on the Rochester campus. Three facilities are on the main downtown campus, with one additional facility one mile away from the main campus, and a 100-acre offsite facility, four miles away. Each facility has at least one necropsy suite, some with specialized equipment for large species. Advanced imaging and procedure suites support CT, MRI, SPECT, proton-beam therapy, and bi-plane fluoroscopy. Specialized housing facilities and equipment are utilized for behavioral phenotyping, metabolic analysis, and germ-free housing.

During the program, residents spend the vast majority of their time in the vivaria and research facilities of Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota. The remainder of the time is spent at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities to gain exposure to species, procedures, and facilities not present at Mayo Clinic. The vivaria at the University of Minnesota total approximately 250,000 square feet distributed among 22 buildings on the Minneapolis-St. Paul campuses. External rotations may also be arranged with local research facilities to further broaden the resident's exposure to a variety of laboratory animal environments.