PATHOLOGY RESIDENCY

Make no mistake, it's not all that easy as other branches for IMGs.

- It's often labelled as a "lifestyle" field, with good academic feel, free weekends, excellent pays and with minimum job stress with almost no emergencies (the only calls are frozen section diagnoses and some autopsies and most program allow residents to be "on call" from their home ! - which, well, makes it competitive

- Add to it the fact that residency positions are much less in number ! Some programs even have just a single position per year, while average is 3 to 4 per program. There maybe about 30 pathology residency programs offering H1b visas, the rest do J1 ..and waiver jobs in Pathology are tougher than compared to waiver jobs in family medicine and internal medicine. (Waiver jobs are generally more in primary care, mental health and dental health - Read more about J1-Waiver Sponsors and Specialties Here)

- Good scores, recommendation letters from US Pathologists, a PhD in related fields or Post-Graduate degrees in Pathology from home-countries are generally preferred. To get a more clear picture, have a look at the Point-system criteria that University of Iowa uses to screen applicants for their pathology residency, Click Here. Research does seem important to many programs - as Long Island Jewish Medical Center Pathology puts it on their Requirements : "Favorable consideration is also given to clinical/research experience, publications in peer-reviewed journals, previous residency training and local references."



Pathology is fast going the same way as Dermatology (near impossible for IMGs) in maybe 5 years.... for it's attractiveness to American medical Graduates as a "cool & paying branch". The other day I met this IMG Neurology resident who seriously contemplated switching into Pathology and I did meet some American surgery residents who switched to pathology! But then, let's not forget, that you gotta really like Pathology to do it. On the flip side, pathologists at times have to deal with being labeled as 'not real doctors' and are confined to labs without much patient contact. But again, they are also known as "Doctor's consultants" and as far as I think after speaking to several Pathology Residents and faculty, it is a very satisfying and fulfilling career.



If you are thinking about a residency in Pathology, Step 1 Scores matter more than Step 2 CK scores for obvious reasons.

One more thing, if you can get thru step 3 before your interview, that's another bonus, since a lot of pathology residents flunk Step 3 exams ! Not surprising, since most of them are not too clinically inclined. Just remember that the residencies are usually 4 years and can extend to 5 years in some places.


Fellowship Options after Pathology Residency ?

Plenty ! Here are the main ones :

- Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine
- Chemical Pathology
- Cytopathology
- Forensic Pathology
- Hematology
- Immunopathology
- Laboratory Informatics / Information Systems
- Medical Microbiology
- Neuropathology
- Pediatric Pathology
- Selective Pathology

How is the job scene in Pathology in USA?

Good ! Excellent Salaries and nice lifestyles. You probably would not get as many job offers as an Internal Medicine Resident or Family Medicine resident or other clinical branches would get, but certainly get a job :-) Less number of job offers also means you have lesser choices in where you wanna be located in the US.


Until the year 2005 Combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology has been a 5-year residency program, but since 2006, the combined program is now 4 years ! So now, if you think about the job market - the employers which paid you for 5 years of training will be reluctant to pay the same for a 4-year training. Hence the new trend in Pathology is that atleast one fellowship is needed to give yourself that "5-year training label".

It is recommended that you take up combined training rather than just Anatomical or Clinical pathology, since that makes you very marketable for jobs.


Also Read : Pathologist Salaries in USA



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Questions for me ? Use my USMLE - Residency Forum