Clinical training

During your training, you will gain extensive experience and develop specialized skills in genitourinary pathology. This includes interpreting a wide range of neoplastic and non-neoplastic genitourinary specimens, selecting and integrating ancillary studies, and consulting with subspecialty experts on GU cases.

Additionally, you'll have the chance to develop complementary expertise and complete research projects through two four-week elective blocks.

By the end of your training, you will achieve high competency in essential educational requirements such as patient care, medical knowledge, interpersonal communication skills, professionalism, practice-based learning, and system-based practice.

Throughout the fellowship, you are supervised by genitourinary faculty, particularly during the sign-out period, which includes the attending pathologist and any resident(s) currently on the genitourinary services. As a fellow, you'll preview and sign out internal GU biopsies, permanent section-only resection specimens, and external consults of genitourinary specimens.

Additionally, you will have the opportunity to perform grossing on GU specimens and participate in the intraoperative consultation on GU specimens seen at any of our frozen section laboratories.

During the latter portion of the training year, you will have more independence. You will review and interpret most or all of our internal cases and issue a preliminary report through a rotation available only to board-certified fellows. After this, the cases go to the attending pathologist who then issues a final report.

Rotation schedule

A typical genitourinary fellowship schedule includes the following (one block is four weeks):

Research training

Research is an integral part of the training program and is highly encouraged by all our fellows. The program maintains a dynamic list of project ideas for trainees although the fellow will also be encouraged to develop ideas of their own. The wealth of surgical pathology material at Mayo Clinic offers limitless opportunities for research projects. We also collaborate with large, active clinical and research groups in all subspecialty areas. 

Early in the program, directors will review this project list with the fellow to allow for meeting abstract deadlines and completion of projects by the end of the program. An introduction to the IRB system, the Mayo Clinic library, and the department’s Biorepository Program’s laboratory services will also be provided. 

We have a tremendous number of resources to support research at Mayo Clinic, including readily accessible statistical support, graphic design and media services, and publication services. We also have the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology's (DLMP) Research Innovation Office which provides support for drafting and submitting IRB protocols as well as obtaining pathologic material from our archives. These services facilitate research, taking care of the administrative aspects and allowing the fellow to focus on the scientific aspects of the project.

You will have the opportunity to submit an abstract to a national or international meeting in genitourinary pathology and/or publish an original research paper. Research projects should be related to a relevant genitourinary pathology question and completed under the supervision of one GU faculty.

Didactic training

The integrated didactic core lecture series, attended by all residents and fellows, covers a range of topics in anatomic and clinical pathology. You also have access to an extensive teaching file containing digital images and glass slides demonstrating the entire spectrum of neoplastic and non-neoplastic pathological diseases.

Conferences

You will attend all GU-related conferences from the AP/CP residency program and all GU eTumor boards. You will run two conferences for the GU pathology section: a biweekly interesting case conference and a monthly journal club. You will attend the Surgical Pathology Journal Club and the AP Interesting Case Conference. Attendance is required at the monthly urologic oncology fellowship didactic lecture.

Throughout the year, you will attend formal presentations on laboratory management principles as part of the established teaching conferences that are given by expert staff members, which is a designed curriculum for leadership and management developed by the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.

Teaching opportunities

As a fellow, you will teach pathology residents and trainees rotating on the genitourinary service. You are responsible for reviewing and discussing clinical cases with residents during the genitourinary rotation. A resident will shadow you and participates in all aspects of the services including previewing cases and signing out with fellows and faculty. 

You will also serve in a supervisory/teaching role for medical student elective and observership programs, where visiting clinical professionals can observe the operations and activities of the program and DLMP department. 

You’ll facilitate training by sitting with the observers and residents at the multi-headed scope and discussing observations.

Evaluation

To ensure that you acquire adequate proficiency and develop appropriate technical skills, performance is monitored carefully during the program. Fellows are evaluated by supervising faculty members at the completion of each rotation block, which may range in length from four to eight weeks. Faculty also formatively assess patient care, medical knowledge, professionalism, systems-based practice, practice-based learning and improvement, and interpersonal and communication skills.

The program director will meet with you quarterly to review your evaluations and discuss professional growth. In addition, allied health staff and residents are asked to evaluate trainee performance periodically.

You will be able to view your evaluations electronically and final written summative evaluations will be compiled for you upon completion of the program. You will also evaluate the faculty to ensure that your educational needs are being met.