Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Pathway (AP/CP)
Five four-week elective blocks in the Anatomic and Clinical Pathology (AP/CP) pathway allow extensive time to develop subspecialty interests, take advantage of unique educational opportunities, and complete research projects.
AP/CP rotations are integrated throughout the four-year curriculum providing residents with continuous exposure to both anatomic pathology and laboratory medicine, facilitating subspecialty decisions and allowing residents to make and maintain relationships with mentors in the department.
Residents gain experience in all aspects of anatomic and clinical pathology, including:
- General surgical pathology
- Subspecialty areas of surgical pathology, such as bone and soft tissue, gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, pulmonary, breast, gynecologic, placental, genitourinary, renal, head and neck, cardiovascular, ophthalmic, neuropathology, endocrine, and dermatopathology
- Postmortem examinations, including hospital and forensic cases
- Cytopathology
- Lab genetics and genomics
- Hematopathology
- Coagulation
- Transfusion medicine
- Clinical chemistry
- Microbiology
- Laboratory management
AP/CP rotation schedule
Review our rotation descriptions to learn more about each rotation.
A typical AP/CP residency rotation schedule includes the following (one block is four weeks):
- Year 1
- Year 2
- Year 3
- Year 4
- Total rotations
- Organ based cores
Year 1
| Rotation | Blocks |
|---|---|
| Frozen section lab and general surgical pathology | 2 blocks |
| Organ based cores | 4 blocks |
| Autopsy pathology | 2 blocks |
| Cytology I | 1 block |
| Microbiology | 2 blocks |
| Coagulation | 1 block |
| Informatics | 1 block |
Year 2
| Rotation | Blocks |
|---|---|
| Frozen section lab and general surgical pathology | 1 block |
| Organ based cores | 2 blocks |
| Hematopathology I | 2 blocks |
| Transfusion medicine | 3 blocks |
| Molecular genetics | 3 blocks |
| Clinical chemistry | 1 block |
| Elective | 1 block |
Year 3
| Rotation | Blocks |
|---|---|
| Transfusion medicine | 1 block |
| Autopsy | 2 blocks |
| Clinical chemistry | 2 blocks |
| Organ based cores | 2 blocks |
| Hematopathology II | 2 blocks |
| Cytology II | 1 block |
| Frozen section lab and general surgery pathology | 1 block |
| Lymph node pathology | 1 block |
| Elective | 1 block |
Year 4
| Rotation | Blocks |
|---|---|
| Organ based cores | 6 blocks |
| Cytology III | 1 block |
| Frozen section lab fellow | 1 block |
| Mayo Clinic Internal Consultant | 1 block |
| Elective | 4 blocks |
Total rotations
| AP/CP total rotations | Blocks |
|---|---|
| AP organ based cores | 14 blocks |
| Frozen section lab/Frozen section fellow | 5 blocks |
| Autopsy | 4 blocks |
| Hematopathology | 4 blocks |
| Transfusion medicine | 4 blocks |
| Clinical chemistry | 3 blocks |
| Cytology | 3 blocks |
| Laboratory genetics | 3 blocks |
| Microbiology | 2 blocks |
| Coagulation lab | 1 block |
| Informatics | 1 block |
| Lymph node | 1 block |
| Mayo Clinic internal consultant | 1 block |
| Electives | 6 blocks |
| Total: | 52 blocks |
Organ based cores
| Pathology organ based cores | # of blocks |
|---|---|
| Bone and soft tissues | 1 block |
| Breast/biomarkers | 2 blocks |
| Dermatopathology | 1 block |
| GI/liver | 2 blocks |
| Genitourinary | 2 blocks |
| Gynecologic/placenta | 2 blocks |
| Head/neck and endocrine | 1 block |
| Medical kidney | 1 block |
| Thoracic | 1 block |
| Total organ based blocks: | 14 |
Note: Cardiovascular is embedded into the final block(s) of autopsy.