Autopsy and Forensic Pathology

• Residents gather essential and accurate clinical information about the patients on whom they perform autopsies, including
  • Discussion of history with clinical housestaff, attending staff and law enforcement personnel.
  • Review of previous radiology studies/ reports and reports/slides of previous pathologic specimens
  • Review of the online medical record when applicable.
  • Review of the autopsy consent form for completeness and accuracy.
• Residents demonstrate competence in the performance of procedures considered essential for autopsy practice, and competently prosect autopsies with increasing degrees of independence including:
  • Demonstrating effective use of a wide variety of evisceration and dissection techniques, including those specific for forensic cases.
  • Adequate and accurate selection of blocks for microscopic review.
  • Preparation of an accurate provisional and final anatomic diagnosis with clinicopathologic correlation, including immediate and contributory causes of death, and other significant diseases, and death certificate.
  • Concise and accurate clinical summary, and gross description.
  • Timely preparation of the autopsy report for faculty review.
• Residents make informed decisions regarding diagnostic workup of autopsy cases:
  • Consider special stains, deeper sections, immunohistochemistry, etc. based on patients’ clinical history, up-to-date scientific evidence gleaned from textbooks, journal articles, internet-based searches, and clinical judgment. 
  • Expected to be able to handle more difficult cases and their approach and diagnosis should more closely correlate the final diagnosis as they progress through their residencies.
• Residents use available information technology (hospital and laboratory information systems, internet-based literature searches).
  • To support workup and diagnosis of autopsy cases.
  • To help educate clinicians by providing relevant literature references.
• Residents work with health care providers, in the generation of accurate and clinically useful autopsy reports and effective communication of results to clinicians.

Evaluation:

• Rotation evaluation
• Statistical analysis of a resident portfolio of cases generated by COPATH including resident vs. attending concordance rates for diagnoses and evaluation of gross descriptions.
• 360o Global evaluation