Conferences

Subspecialty Conferences: are held each weekday morning from 8 to 9 am. Conferences are organized in a curriculum that repeats every two years. The curriculum includes all AP and CP subspecialties. Residents are relieved of service obligations from 8 to 9 am each day.

Surgical Pathology subspecialty conference: is held each Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 6pm and on Fridays from 4:30 to 5:30pm in addition to those held weekday mornings at 8:00 am. This is an informal conference which is designed to provide examples of specific (often rare) surgical pathology cases. It is conducted by an attending surgical pathologist. Topics discussed at this conference are generally selected by residents and tend to be organ centered. Attendance is voluntary. It is conducted by Dr. S. Rao.

Autopsy Conference: is held each Wed. at 7:30 am. Generally a resident presents a recent case which is then discussed. Faculty from various medical and pathology subspecialties attend this conference.

Research Conferences: are held each Monday at noon except during the summer. Nationally and internationally recognized speakers are invited to present topics in their areas of expertise. In addition NU faculty, NU graduate students, and McGaw residents also present their research findings at these conferences.

Journal Club: Current relevant literature is reviewed and critiqued at various journal clubs in the department. Journal club schedule is flexible within each of the department sections.

Consensus Conferences: Where applicable, faculty review selected cases at a multi-headed microscope in each section. The schedule of these conferences varies in each section. Residents are encouraged to attend all conferences especially those that occur on assigned rotations.

Unknown Conferences: are held in each section, but schedule is variable. Generally, selected cases are made available several days before the conferences, and residents are expected to discuss the cases during the conference. Subspecialty 8:00 am conferences also include some unknown conferences.

Tumor Boards: are organ system specific and are held at different times for each discipline. Generally tumor boards are held weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Residents (usually PGY2 and above) work with a pathologist to prepare and present cases at each tumor board. Residents usually elect to participate in specific tumor boards based on interest.

Research Tutorial: Faculty members conduct a series of interactive seminars geared toward teaching residents theoretical and practical aspects of conducting research in pathology (basic, translational, and clinical). The series covers topics such as hypothesis testing, experimental design and analysis, critically evaluating the literature, and how to write research proposals and manuscripts.