Pathology Residency Program Goals

The Harbor-UCLA Pathology Residency Training Program is structured to achieve the goal of preparing highly qualified medical graduates to become competent and productive Anatomic and Clinical Pathologists, with the potential to pursue a career in the community hospital setting or in an academic teaching and research setting, as they may choose.  We are committed not only to the best care of Los Angeles County patients who come to this hospital, but to producing well-trained Pathologists to practice for many years to come in this community, and others, for the benefit of all of the people of Los Angeles County.  This department strives to provide the best quality of training in all areas of both Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, with a strong faculty of experienced and respected subspecialists using up-to-date technology.  We select the best available residency candidates applying to our program, and support their educational efforts as individuals, and in the group, by personalized teaching by all members of the faculty throughout their residency.  We will continue to invest our resources in providing educational materials and facilities, and support resident research with enthusiasm.  We expect each resident to develop a personal program of self-study and professional growth with guidance from the teaching staff.

Our educational philosophy involves providing our residents with increasing responsibility and opportunities for teaching and diagnostic independence as their knowledge and skills develop.  This culminates in the fourth and fifth years of training as advancement to the status of Chief Resident and Junior Attending, with substantial responsibility for supervision of junior residents and for basic independent diagnostic exposure.  Clinical and Anatomic Pathology rotations are not segregated into separate years in our program, but combined in all of the years of residency to achieve better retention of material, and early exposure and competency in all areas.  Residents all attend a common core curriculum of teaching conferences in all of their training years in both Clinical and Anatomic Pathology, and present numerous departmental and interdepartmental teaching conferences themselves.  The clinical departments of our hospital strongly involve the Pathology Department and our residents as consultants in patient care, as well as in a teaching role, to the benefit of the development of the residents as physicians.  We emphasize collegiality among the residents, and continuity of the program goals with each individual contributing time and effort to improve our work and the training of their peers.  By the time our residents complete the program, we are confident in their ability to qualify for American Board of Pathology Primary Certification in the areas of their choice, and to advance to successful practice or advanced fellowship training.