Since assuming the Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1990, I have strived to bring distinction to all aspects of our activities. Among these, I consider the Residency Training Program in Pathology to be especially important. The house staff in any training program is tomorrow's community of practicing pathologists. And regardless of whether the practice of our discipline is ultimately in the frozen section room of a community hospital or an academic medical center, in the research laboratory, or in the clinical laboratory, we are committed to preparing residents for any and all of these activities at the highest possible level.

Pathology training at UT Southwestern encompasses several important features. We have a very large and diverse faculty, all of whom are specialists representing each of the major pathology disciplines. Unlike many academic medical centers in which various aspects of specialized diagnostic pathology have been subsumed into other departments for a variety of practical and political reasons, almost all diagnostic activities at the UT Southwestern Medical Center are under the control of our Department. Hence, we are able to offer comprehensive in depth training in all of the various pathology disciplines as well as a complete array of subspecialty fellowship programs. It is our view that a strong academic environment with access to state-of-the-art and newly emerging diagnostic technologies is essential to the preparation of any pathologist for professional life in the 21st century, regardless of the ultimate practice setting. Therefore, basic training in our program is enhanced by extensive exposure to modern molecular diagnostics, advanced flow cytometric analysis and molecular cytogenetics. The Department provides diagnostic services in a variety of clinical settings that include a large county hospital (Parkland Hospital), two private University Hospitals (Zale-Lipshy Hospital and St. Paul Hospital), a tertiary care private pediatric hospital (Children's Medical Center), a large university outpatient clinic (Aston Clinic) and the Dallas VA Medical Center, exposing you to the full spectrum of human adult and pediatric disease.

We do not advocate mandatory research activity as part of our residency training, but many of our residents take the initiative to undertake various projects in collaboration with a very willing faculty that culminate in significant contributions to the literature. Our residents are active and visible participants in many national and international pathology society meetings. Presentations at such meetings are strongly encouraged and supported by the Department. For those residents with a strong commitment to an academic research career, the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology within our Department offers opportunities for both short term elective and longer term intensive research training funded by the Department. This Division comprises approximately 15 faculty members and their laboratory staff, who are highly research oriented and whose laboratories are available to the residents.

Our program strives to attract academically oriented candidates; currently 8 of our 37 residents hold combined MD, PhD degrees. In this regard, UT Southwestern has recently established a new combined clinical/research training program called the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP). Applicants to the Pathology Residency Program with a strong background in biomedical science and a strong inclination to pursue a career as an investigator in the field of pathology may request consideration for a PSTP grant concurrently with their pathology application. The competition for PSTP grants crosses departmental lines and is separate from the resident selection process. If you are awarded a PSTP grant and select UT Southwestern for your residency training, you will receive guaranteed support for a 3-year period of research training after completion of a 24 month core curriculum in Anatomic or Clinical Pathology. Further information about this exciting new program is available at http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/home/educ/pstp/index.html

I hope that you will give serious consideration to visiting Dallas so that you can gain more insight into the strengths of our program. If you are interested in learning more about our program after reviewing the information in this on-line brochure, please feel free to contact me, the director of the program, or any other member of our faculty.

Errol C. Friedberg, MD