Northwestern McGaw offers fully accredited residency programs in anatomic pathology (AP) and clinical pathology (CP) based at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Candidates may choose a residency in AP or CP or a combined program of AP/CP. The residency program seeks to educate pathologists with expertise in a subspecialty area, an understanding of current research, and a commitment to lifelong learning. Residents fully participate in the department’s mission of service, scholarship, and teaching. The program emphasizes graded responsibility, with increasing independence and expectations as the trainee develops into a competent practitioner. Structured formal teaching, including didactic lectures, unknown slide conferences, and case-based teaching, covers all areas of modern pathology practice. To become effective clinical consultants, pathology residents in each laboratory play an integral role in the day-to-day patient care activities of the laboratory, including administration and supervision. Residents entering the program are encouraged to participate in department research projects. This experience teaches them how to critically analyze the medical literature and serves as a basis for understanding the relationship between basic science and patient care. Many residents completing the program have published at least one research paper. Teaching is an essential function of the pathologist in the form of didactic lectures to medical students or effective consultations with clinicians. Residents have many opportunities to develop their teaching skills in pathology conferences, clinical conferences, serving as facilitators for medical student small group sessions, and consulting with clinicians regarding cases encountered in the different pathology disciplines.
The Department of Pathology also offers a research residency program for individuals with extensive research experience (for example, graduates of MD/PhD programs). The schedules for research residents are tailored to their individual clinical and research goals with the expectation that they will achieve board eligibility in either AP or CP. The department makes arrangements for them to conduct research in various University laboratories. Residents entering the program are encouraged to participate in departmental research projects. This experience teaches them how to critically analyze the medical literature and serves as a basis for understanding the relationship between basic science and patient care.
Residents may choose from a number of diverse areas, including molecular mechanisms of peroxisome proliferator–induced pleiotropic responses, receptor-mediated mechanisms of liver cancer, role of ß-galactoside binding mammalian lectins in kidney development, structure and functional maintenance of glomerular basement membrane integrity, function and regulation of cadherin-based intercellular adhesive junctions in development and differentiation and their role in cancer and blistering autoimmune diseases of the epidermis, mechanisms of urinary bladder carcinogenesis, mechanisms of myelination and autoimmune demyelination, molecular and immunobiologic aspects of Chagas disease and the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, and molecular basis of protein phospholipid interactions, molecular aspects of programmed cell death, evaluation of the role of biologic heterogeneity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia clinical outcome, molecular testing methods to enhance microbial infection control activities, and elucidation of the mechanisms of antimicrobial drug resistance in enterococci and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Children's Memorial Hospital (the new Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, June 2012) contribute more than 4,200 autopsies, 49,000 surgical specimens, 51,000 cytology cases, and more than 4 million laboratory procedures to the residency program annually.
Full-time faculty members supervise residents and direct all laboratories, which are fully staffed with technical and supporting personnel. Research laboratories in the hospitals and medical school include facilities for electron microscopy, quantitative microscopy, molecular biology, flow cytometry and cell sorting, and transgenic and gene knock-out procedures. Adequate support and animal care facilities are readily available. A total of 22 residency positions are available for PGY-1 to PGY-4. Foreign medical graduates must have an ECFMG certificate and proof of U.S. Citizenship or valid VISA.
The Department of Pathology participates in the Integrated Graduate Program in the Life Sciences at the medical school. This interdisciplinary program is open to qualified undergraduates, medical students, and residents.
William Muller, MD, PhD
Magerstadt Professor and Chairman of Pathology Beverly P. Nelson, MD
Elizabeth J. Perlman, MD
Children's Memorial Hospital Or send inquires to: Irene Galace, Program Coordinator, Department of Pathology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Ward 3-140, Chicago, Illinois 60611-3008, 312/503-8223; fax 312/503-8249. E-mail: path-residency@northwestern.edu | 
