The 4-year Pathology Residency Training Program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). An average of 3 first-year residents are appointed to the program each year.
The Pathology Residency is a program tailored to the interests and needs of each of our residents. We practice in state-of-the-art facilities with a first-class clinical laboratory. We prepare residents for academic, sub-specialty, or general pathology careers.
The Department of Pathology provides laboratory services for inpatients and outpatients at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center as well as for a growing proportion of patients at large affiliate outreach practices in southern New Hampshire and along the Upper Valley of the Connecticut River. As a tertiary care laboratory, it also provides referral services for physicians over a wide geographic area. It has a close affiliation with the nearby Veterans Affairs Medical Center laboratory, with sharing arrangements covering many services. There is a well-established working and educational affiliation with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in nearby Concord, NH, through which residents gain first-hand exposure to the fascinating world of forensic pathology. The breadth, depth, and volume of material to which a resident has exposure at Dartmouth are particular strengths of the training program.
Program aims
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Pathology residents will:
- Provide accurate, timely, subspecialized pathology support across all clinical settings:
- Communicate results clearly and respond to inquiries from multidisciplinary care providers and support staff
- Provide the right result for the correct patient
- Practice evidence-based medicine as applicable to each pathology subspecialty
- Contribute to and advance the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine:
- Be engaged and visible members of multidisciplinary healthcare teams
- Educate other hospital departments on test indications and sample requirements and appropriate test utilization
- Practice, innovate, and promote continuous process improvement and patient safety measures
- Nurture well-being among ourselves and our peers:
- Respectfully interact with multidisciplinary care teams and patients
- Professionally represent ourselves, our patients, and our profession
Mission
Our mission is to guide and educate physicians in pathology and laboratory medicine, to contribute to and advance the specialties therein, and to nurture wellness through professional interactions, collegiality, and personal goals.
Overall program educational goals
The goal of the residency program in pathology is to prepare trainees in each competency to enter into practice without direct supervision. The competencies and the meaningful demonstration of these competencies are outlined below:
- Patient care – prioritizing tasks, reporting data, interpreting data, managing data, educating self and others
- Medical knowledge – recognizing patterns, explaining patterns, acquiring new information, demonstrating new information
- Practice-based learning and improvement – finding evidence, feedback, data analysis, self-reflection, study and sharing for improvement, teaching
- Interpersonal and communication skills
- Professionalism – integrity and honesty, excellence, accountability, altruism, respect, and duty
- Systems-based practice – teamwork, advocacy, coordination, technology use in practice, improvement tools and skills, cost-effectiveness, safety
Our objective is to provide an exceptionally strong foundation for pursuit of an academic career, for further training toward sub-specialization, or for entry into general pathology practice in a wide variety of settings.
Toward that objective, the program offers, in a medical school-based setting, flexible, broad training in both anatomic and clinical pathology. Flexibility is desirable in order to meet the individual needs and differing interests of each resident. The basis for the broad experience is a core curriculum that ensures that the resident will be exposed to all subdisciplines and will take advantage of the balanced strength in anatomic and clinical pathology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
Participation by residents in active clinical and basic research projects is strongly encouraged, and residents are supported to develop their own research projects. The department's faculty is committed to conveying to residents the excitement and value inherent in the discipline and rigorous scientific thinking involved with doing excellent research.
The program also fosters interest and skills in teaching by engaging residents in a variety of teaching activities and responsibilities. In the medical school, in the hospital, in the conference room, in the classroom, and in the laboratory, pathology residents at here are widely acknowledged for their contributions and excellence in teaching. Indeed, for the resident with a particularly strong interest in teaching, there are really no limits to her or his opportunities.