General Questions:

  • What’s a typical day like?
  • What is clinical pathology training like?
    • Clinical pathology rotations Rhode Island Hospital in the Miriam Hospital are designed to give residents exposure to laboratory techniques at the bench time for study and research.
  • What are call responsibilities like?
    • Call responsibilities begin halfway through first year and halfway into fourth year to allow for an adjustment period for incoming new residents and time for board study for senior residents, respectively.
    • Residents on call handle clinical questions directly from providers and troubleshoot clinical lab questions, as well as afterhours intraoperative consultation including assessing organs for transplantation.
  • Are residents required to pass USMLE or COMLEX Step III/Level III during training?
    • Yes, per Brown GME requirements, residents are required to pass step 3/Level 3 during training.  More information can be found on the Brown graduate medical education website.
  • Where do graduates of Brown pathology go? Do graduates obtain their desired fellowships?
  • How are resident concerns addressed?
    • The program directors maintain an open-door policy for any concerns and the program directors meet with the residents on a regularly scheduled, monthly basis for open discussion regarding any issue in the residency. Brown Graduate Medical Education sends out semiannual surveys and residents are regularly polled for input on their training program. The chief residents, faculty, program directors, and Lifespan Graduate Medical Education are all available for any immediate concerns for time-sensitive matters.
  • What kind of hours do residents work?
    • While the hours of operation may widely vary between rotations and rotation sites, our residents are expected to stay well under the 80-hour work limit and a regular surgical pathology rotation (our heaviest service) often entails up to 50 to 60-hour work weeks with at least 2 Saturdays of half day grossing while on the surgical pathology service.
  • What’s it like working at Brown/Rhode Island Hospital?
    • Rhode Island Hospital is 719-bed hospital in the capital city of the state and is the primary referral center in the Southeastern portion of the New England region.  We serve a diverse population of patients and see wide variety of pathology in all services.  Residents here enjoy a wide variety of amenities within Brown University as well as facilities on campus within the Lifespan and Care New England system.
  • Does Brown provide laptops for all its pathology residents? Do residents have their own workspace?
  • Does Brown have a travel policy for residents presenting at meetings?
    • Yes, for first-authored publication or presentation, there is a $2000 travel stipend per year to cover expenses while traveling to conferences associated with the publication or presentation.
  • What will my interview day be like?
    • Your interview day starts at 9:15 AM in the morning Eastern time with our coordinator a brief introduction by our program director followed by interviews with faculty and staff, and a lunchtime/break Q&A session with the residents.
  • What percentage of residents ends up going into clinical pathology careers after training?
    • Since 2015, approximately 18% of our graduates ended up in clinical pathology careers, mostly hematopathology.
  • How are residents evaluated?
    • Along with day-to-day feedback with attendings on service, residents are also given access to evaluation forms completed by faculty and are given a semi-annual program directors meeting for feedback, advice, and to address any questions or issues that may arise during training.
  • Do residents have an opportunity to evaluate faculty in the residency program?
    • Yes, residents are given access to forms to evaluate attendings on-service and the rotation as whole, as well as a larger internal Lifespan graduate medical education survey to annually evaluate our program.
  • When do trainees take AP/CP boards?
    • Trainees are given lighter rotations and take no call during the last half of fourth year to give time for both board studying and time to sit for the board exam during the last months of residency.
  • Is this a combined AP/CP residency?
    • Yes
  • What is the relationship between this Department of Pathology and other Boston area institutions?
    • Our toxicology department participates in Boston-area toxicology rounds/lectures and many faculty members of this department have co-research collaborators in other New England and national medical centers.
  • What the total number of residents in your program?
    • 16 residents (4 residents per class)
  • How is vacation time handled?
    • We take requests for vacation (3 weeks for PGY-1 to PGY-3, 4 weeks for PGY-4) near or at the beginning of each academic year and are allotted a variable number of paid holidays during the year as “floating holidays”, holidays that saved from working national holidays, which are available upon request, per Lifespan policy. This is done by completing a single page form that is approved by both the rotation directors and the program directors.
  • How do residents interact with the fellows?
    • Residents may consult with fellows on a case, be assigned a case to work up together with a fellow, and fellows may elect to lecture and hold slide sessions together with residents and collaborate on research with residents.
  • How close do residents park to the hospital?
    • Residents and fellows park for free on-site, directly behind Rhode Island Hospital and Women and Infants Hospital. It is approximately 600 ft from the parking lot to the rear entrance of Rhode Island Hospital and 300 ft to the rear entrance of Women and Infants Hospital.
  • Other any off-campus rotations?
    • The Miriam Hospital is the only primary off-site rotation, which is approximately 10 minutes from Rhode Island Hospital by car. Women and Infants Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital are directly adjacent to each other on the same campus, connected by a pedestrian tunnel.
  • What is the structure of the pathology residency program at Brown?
  • Do pathology residents interact with clinical teams and see patients?
    • Yes, we take direct consults from clinical teams while on call or on service during various rotations, and we have direct patient care opportunities in fine-needle aspirates and performing bone marrow biopsy and aspirates.
  • What about fringe benefits such as book funds, travel funds, or lunch programs? Where can I find information on salary and benefits? Book fund money?

Applying to Brown Pathology residency and fellowship programs:

  • How do I apply for the pathology residency at Brown? What is your application deadline?
  • What visas does Brown Pathology sponsor?
    • Exchange visitor (J) visas.
  • Is US clinical experience required? If so how long?
    • US clinical experience is not required but is certainly encouraged.
  • What are the USMLE step 1/2 or COMLEX level 1/2 minimum acceptable scores?
    • We evaluate each candidate’s profile holistically and factor in many different metrics. As such, a passing score is the minimum requirement here.
  • What fellowships are available at Brown?

Surgical pathology questions:

  • Is it general sign out or subspecialty sign out?
    • Our surgical pathology rotations at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital are general sign out, and our rotations at Women and Infants in Perinatal Pathology and Gynecological Pathology are subspecialty sign out.
  • Does Brown have pathology assistants?
    • Yes, all surgical pathology rotation sites have pathology assistants working on-site alongside rotating pathology residents.
  • How’s the grossing schedule organized?
    • Four residents a month are on two-day cycle at Rhode Island Hospital; the two residents on day one go to sign out the previewed cases in the morning followed by mid-morning to afternoon grossing. Day two residents are involved previewing and signing out biopsies in the morning and previewing grossed specimens from day one in the afternoon!
    • Surgical pathology at Miriam Hospital is on a one-day cycle with a limit on specimen numbers to allow for adequate time for preview and study.
  • Adequate time for preview prior to sign-out?
    • Yes, our surgical pathology rotations were designed to give residents adequate time during day two for full preview and study of cases.
  • Are there any surgical specimens that are not handled by residents on surgical pathology?
    • Residents are primarily assigned malignant cases but are also given opportunities to experience grossing and working up benign cases to familiarize residents with the full spectrum of specimen types.
  • Is the frozen section done as a separate rotation or as a part of general surgical pathology?
    • Frozen sections are done as general surgical pathology responsibilities and are assigned to each resident on a weekly basis, 4 times a month.  There is also a junior attending, frozen section hot seat rotation available as an elective for 4th year residents.

Regarding education at Brown Pathology:

  • Does the residency program have a boot camp for new PGY1 residents?
    • Yes, our “boot camp” is one-month long introduction to pathology residency, scheduled at the first month of residency after the completion of the graduate medical education orientation week. Boot camp primarily involves didactics and hands-on, supervised learning sessions in the surgical pathology suite and the morgue for the autopsy portion of “boot camp”.
  • Does Brown pathology provide formal mentorship for resident?
    • Yes. Residents are assigned a faculty mentor at the beginning of their training (PGY-1).
  • Are residents involved in scholarly activities?
    • Yes, our residents have presented platform and poster presentations at USCAP and many other national conferences as well as produce research publications as part of interdisciplinary teams within Lifespan and Care New England Hospitals.  More information can be found within the resident's profiles.
  • Are residents involved in teaching?
    • Yes, residents have an opportunity to be involved in one-on-one day-to-day teaching of medical students while on service or as Resident Directors of Medical Student Education overseeing their rotation as well as volunteering for leading small group histology lab for the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University during senior years of training.
  • What sort of board prep resources are provided for coordinated by the department?
    • PATHPrimer and ASCP Question Banks are given to residents, along with individual subscriptions to ExpertPath.
  • Will I have an opportunity to take on more responsibility as a progress through residency?
    • Yes, delivering graduated responsibilities is one of the core educational objectives of the residency program.
  • What are options available for electives or away rotations?
    • Residents are fully funded for away rotations, including audition rotations at potential fellowship programs. They are allotted one away rotation and, depending on the resident’s progress, up to two electives.
  • What opportunities are available for research in the department?
    • Residents may join ongoing projects together with faculty within the department or collaborate on interdepartmental projects within Lifespan and Care New England hospitals, or connect with researchers at Brown University for projects and funding opportunities.
  • What is the didactic educational program for residents?
    • We have Monday morning didactics which is protected time for residents to attend lectures.

About lifestyle:

  • What’s it like living in Rhode Island?
  • Is childcare available for pathology residents?
    • Yes, Bright Horizon’s Children’s Center, an on-campus day care center is available for residents.
  • What kind of housing is available?
    • There is a diversity of living situation available within 15 minutes of Rhode Island Hospital, from intercity lofts and apartment living in downtown Providence to suburban neighborhoods with single family homes over the state line in Massachusetts!
  • What is our dress code?
    • Medical scrubs are acceptable for all rotations, white coats and business attire for patient-facing, formal presentation events, or interviews are encouraged!

 

What if I have additional questions? Who can I contact with any further questions?

You may contact our program coordinator, Alisha Lima, by email at [email protected] or by phone at 401-444-5057 and fax at 401-444-8514 or connect with our residents via their respective profile pages!