Navigating PathElective as an Educator:

PathElective was designed to be a supplementing pathology elective education. As the COVID-19 pandemic led to cancelation of numerous elective rotations, it has taken on a new life as a means of getting students exposed to pathology who might not have been able to as their elective rotations got canceled. This platform also allows students the opportunity to virtually interact with pathology teachers in the field through social media and virtual conferences

Educating Junior Residents

This website can be used to give junior pathology residents an introduction to the various subspecialties in pathology but can also be used as a primer for a rotation. For instance, the resident could take the dermatopathology module in the days before starting the dermatopathology rotation, so they have a better understanding of the histology and pathologies they will be likely be seeing on their rotation.

There are also modules in histology, gross pathology, and general anatomic pathology that could help pathology residents get up-to-speed on basic scientific knowledge that should be recalled from medical school and serve as a basis for the knowledge about the basic functioning of the pathology department and how to properly gross specimens.

This resource can always be revisited as the resident proceeds through their training. Once they start gaining more expertise, they could start involving themselves in the specialization certificates, engaging with the pathology community on Twitter, and contributing content to the website.

Once a resident advances their training beyond the first two years, they are likely to find less use in this platform, but they are welcome to re-visit topics on our website to review for boards or to find resources for further study, collaborators for publication, or possible pathologists to study under in fellowship.

Educating Medical Students

During medical education, PathElective can be used in three ways: (1) during pre-clinical years in preparation for boards, (2) during the clinical years as an additional resource during a pathology elective, and (3) during clinical years as a replacement to an in-person pathology elective.

1. If using PathElective during pre-clinical years, we suggest starting with the “Illustrations of Histology” module to review the systems and histology of the cell types in each. Next, we suggest watching the corresponding pathology modules as you finish the system in medical school. (i.e.: as you take GI pathophysiology in medical school, the GI pathology course could be taken online to add to the coursework). The courses can then be re-visited as you prepare for your boards. All modules could be completed over the course of the year/6-months preparing for boards.

2. If using PathElective during the clinical years of medical school as an additional resource, we suggest assigning a course for the students to review during their downtime and/or to prepare for the subspecialty they will be observing. Again, the “Illustrations of Histology”, “General Anatomic Pathology”, and “Gross Pathology” modules would be a great place to start, so the students can get exposed to how the pathology lab works and who does what. If using PathElective as an additional resource, parts of each course or 2-3 full courses could be completed of the course of a 3-week long elective in addition to the three introductory modules

3. If using PathElective during the clinical years of medical school as a replacement for an in-person elective, we suggest starting with the “Illustrations of Histology”, “General Anatomic Pathology”, and “Gross Pathology” modules and proceeding to the system specific modules in both anatomic and clinical pathology. If using this resource as a replacement, we would suggest striving to complete ~7 full courses over the course of three weeks in addition to the three introductory modules.