Chair's Message

WELCOME to the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in Lexington, Ky. I hope that this site will inform you about our department, our facilities, and our people as well as convey our pride in our department and the science and profession of pathology. I invite you to contact me or other faculty or staff with any questions that you may have about our department.

PATHOLOGY IS ABOUT PATIENTS, NOT SPECIMENS. At the University of Kentucky, we strongly believe that pathology practice is about patients, not specimens. Our teaching of medical students, as well as our residency and fellowship training programs, are heavily influenced by that philosophy.  We continue to believe in the time-honored concept of the pathologist as the “doctor’s doctor” and a major advocate for excellent patient care.

DEPARTMENT MISSION
Our department mission emphasizes our commitment to four areas: (1) excellent diagnostic services, (2) outstanding teaching programs, (3) the importance of research and scholarly activities, and (4) the personal growth of our faculty, house staff, students, and staff. These diverse missions are linked by our definition of the pathologist as a clinician, teacher, researcher, and scholar, as well as a good citizen.

WE WORK AS A TEAM
We achieve our missions through a team effort of faculty, residents, fellows, and staff. Our faculty have been recruited with diverse interests and capabilities in keeping with the clinical, research, and educational needs of the department. Currently, the department has 45 full-time faculty members. Many of our faculty have shared or joint appointments in other departments, including the Markey Cancer Center, the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging,  and the department of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics, as well as the College of Health Sciences and the Graduate Center for Toxicology. These shared appointments underscore our team approach to optimizing patient care, research, and education.

OUR FACULTY ARE LEADERS
Our faculty members serve as leaders in American Pathology and are active participants in regional, national, and international societies including the College of American Pathologists, the American Society of Cytopathologists, the US Canadian Association of Pathologists, the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies, the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine, and the American Society for Microbiology.

OUR RESIDENCY AND FELLOWSHIPS ARE STRONG
Our four-year combined anatomic and clinical pathology residency training programs and fellowships attract strong candidates who achieve success in American Board of Pathology certification and in securing excellent fellowship training programs and job placements in both community and academic settings. The overall programmatic goal is excellent preparation of the trainee pathologist for the practice of pathology. This is achieved through the exposure of the resident to a high volume of representative case material with an opportunity for graded responsibility and a team approach involving faculty and house staff.

WE TRAIN BOTH COMMUNITY AND ACADEMIC PATHOLOGISTS
The majority of residents plan to practice in the community setting. Because of our close association with practicing pathologists within the state of Kentucky, we have a uniquely focused perspective on fulfilling that goal. In addition to training experience in an affiliated community hospital, the program also provides opportunities for self-selected residents preparing for a career in academic medicine to engage in research with senior faculty currently engaged in research in diverse areas of experimental, translational, and molecular pathology. These faculty members also provide both didactic and bench-based exposure to modern techniques and concepts of molecular pathology and genetics.

WE FOSTER PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
A key component of the department's training philosophy is fostering personal and professional growth by exposure to diverse educational opportunities. Our faculty is committed to education in the areas of anatomic pathology, clinical laboratory medicine, and research. We also offer one-year fellowships in cytopathology, neuropathology, and surgical pathology. Our residents participate in core and advanced rotations in the major areas of anatomic pathology (autopsy, surgical pathology, cytopathology, neuropathology, dermatopathology, electron microscopy, forensic pathology, and cytogenetics) and clinical pathology (clinical chemistry, microbiology, hematology, immunopathology, and blood banking). We are proud that our residency program is fully accredited by the ACGME. In addition to core rotations, training in immunopathology, molecular diagnostics, and laboratory management prepare the residents to be true consultants to their clinician colleagues and institutions. In the past several years, residents have participated in College of American Pathologist Laboratory Accreditation Inspections of clinical laboratories at other academic health centers all over the United States.

WE PRACTICE PATHOLOGY IN DIVERSE SETTINGS
A full range of pathology and laboratory medicine clinical services are offered by the department in diverse settings including UK HealthCare and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, housed in connected facilities and staffed by faculty members of the department. The faculty also provides clinical services to St. Claire Medical Center, the Kentucky Blood Center, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky Medical Examiners Program in Frankfort.  A large, fully automated clinical laboratory service provides state-of-the-art testing in chemistry, hematology, microbiology, immunomolecular pathology and flow cytometry, cytogenetics, and transfusion medicine.  Our laboratories are accredited by CAP, AABB, ASHI, FACT and TJC.

OUR RESEARCH ANALYZES BASIC AND TRANSLATIONAL QUESTIONS
Our research programs encompass diverse areas of investigation in the molecular genetics of cancer, aging, and neurodegenerative disorders. We also conduct translational research, involving clinicians and scientists from multiple departments at UK. We also focus on creating synergies between our experimental pathology group and our clinical faculty. In all these areas, trainees participate.

SUMMARY
Our department continues to grow and thrive in all four areas of our mission: providing excellent diagnostic services, outstanding training, impactful research, and all by promoting personal and professional growth. Please feel free to contact us for more information regarding our dynamic practice environment.