Genitourinary Clinical Fellowship Program

Mission Statement

The Genitourinary Pathology Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a one-year training program, designed to prepare applicants to function independently as academic genitourinary pathologists, or as community hospital pathologists desiring a subspecialty expertise in Genitourinary Pathology. The structure of the training program is flexible and tailored on the fellow's goals and interests.

Genitourinary Pathology Environment

The training program in genitourinary pathology is primarily based at Shadyside Hospital. Apart from in-house cases, the genitourinary pathology specimens processed at this facility are mainly received from UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Magee Women’s Hospital, as well as several UPMC facilities outside of Pittsburgh. In addition, numerous consultation cases are reviewed from a network of Western Pennsylvania UPMC hospitals and other non-UPMC regional hospitals.

The Genitourinary Pathology Center of Excellence is a subspecialty service under the Department of Anatomic Pathology. There are three specialized genitourinary pathologists within the division who share responsibilities in general surgical pathology, cytology, and medical renal biopsy pathology. We examine approximately 5000 urologic pathology specimens per year, which span all levels of complexity in urologic pathology. A wide array of ancillary techniques are available to complement the evaluation of a given case.

Our dynamic Division of Urology provides specimens for diagnostic and research purposes obtained from surgical management of neoplastic and non-neoplastic disorders of the prostate, urinary bladder, kidney, testis, penis and other urogenital sites. There are many ongoing collaborations between our division and other divisions in the medical center including Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Urologic Basic Research and Urology.

Teaching, clinical and research conferences are held regularly. These include a bi-weekly multidisciplinary urologic tumor board, held in conjunction with the Division of Urology, monthly journal club, and interesting cases conference. The trainee can also benefit from access to other Anatomic and Clinical Pathology conferences, research conferences and guest speakers.

Genitourinary Pathology Training

This fellowship is designed to prepare applicants to function independently as an academic genitourinary (GU) surgical pathologist. It provides fellows with a large case volume, junior staff responsibilities and clinical and basic science research opportunities in GU pathology. Applicants will be recruited for a one-year period.

Fellow Responsibilities

Some of the fellow responsibilities include:

• Participation in the daily sign out and intraoperative consultation of urologic pathology cases.
• Involvement in resident mentoring and teaching, with the opportunity to participate in the Medical Student (UPSOM) teaching.  
• Participation in Journal Club (monthly), Anatomic Pathology Ground Rounds(once a year)
• Coordination of the bi-weekly GU multidisciplinary tumor board held in conjunction with the Division of Urology.
• Opportunity to collaborate in ongoing clinical and basic research studies and, at a minimum, present his/her research at one national meeting during the academic year.
• Covering approximately three weeks of call during the year.