Pathology

Pathology builds on what you learned in Histology. While Histology was the study of healthy tissue, pathology focuses on diseased tissue. During the Pathology course, the structure-function relationships that dictate cellular homeostasis and the basic reactions of cells and tissues to abnormal stimuli will be emphasized. The structural and functional consequences of such abnormal stimuli will be considered at the level of the cell, the tissue, and the organism. The class consists of lectures that may be live or pre-recorded for you to watch ahead of time. You will also have small group laboratory sessions, consisting of a series of clinical case histories, which are very important for learning clinical correlates and applying your knowledge (and doing well on the quizzes/final). There are also ten biweekly differential diagnoses assignments (DDx) and a small group presentation on one DDx assignment. Once or twice a week, there is also a gross pathology lab session led by Dr. Butt that can help contextualize the content you learn in class.

Please note that this course is six weeks long and runs concurrently with Immunology.

There are weekly quizzes (5 * 10% each) every Friday that consist of roughly 20 questions. The final exam (25%) consists of a Brightspace “practical” portion, which is most representative of content from small group lab sessions, as well as an NBME exam. You will also be graded on the 10 differential diagnosis assignments (10 * 1% each) and your group presentation (15%).

• Lecture - It is helpful to watch the pre-recorded lectures the night before class or preview the PowerPoint before the live lecture the next day.

• Lab Small Groups - Show up to small group lab sessions prepared by previewing the PowerPoint beforehand. It is helpful to answer the questions in advance as the professors and TAs will ask you the questions during lab time. Try to participate and be engaged because lab sessions contain important content especially for the quizzes and Blackboard final. It is totally okay to be wrong – the professors do not expect you to know everything and this is a safe space to learn. The cases in lab small groups are where the majority of learning will happen.

• DDx - You will have ten total Differential Diagnosis assignments. You will be given a PowerPoint with a case and some pathology slides and you have to work through it to create a differential and final diagnosis. You will not be marked off if you reach the incorrect diagnosis as they are mainly interested in your thought process. It is okay to talk out loud and brainstorm with classmates, but do not plagiarize. You will have to present one DDx to the class while the other nine you will have to simply submit as a written assignment. Do your best on these, but do not excessively stress over them or spend more than an hour working on them.

• Weekly Quizzes - The weekly quizzes happen every Friday and contain roughly 20 questions. There are practice problems at the end of the lab sessions, and the high yield information is also emphasized by the TAs and professors in lab sessions and in review sessions. Review the lecture slides, focus mainly on the lab sessions, and definitely don't skip the weekly review.

• Final Exam - The final exam consists of Brightspace questions as well as an NMBE final. The Brightspace questions are based mainly on the lab sessions so make sure you review those and attend the final review session. The NBME final is a combination of pathology and immunology questions with clinical vignettes. The NBME is always harder and you can best prepare for it by using First Aid and doing STEP 1 practice question banks if you have the time (although most people don't need as high of a percentage on this exam to pass the course).

*Most important resources are in red

• Lab Powerpoints - You will obtain the majority of high-yield, testable content in the lab powerpoints and lab sessions. Attendance is mandatory, so show up to your small group, participate, and ask questions. Review the lab content before quizzes and the final exam.

• First Aid & Anki - First Aid has an excellent condensed review of the major topics of this course. It can be helpful to review material throughout the course or to review key concepts for the final exam. Anki cards can be unsuspended based on the First Aid tags. Some students also made their own cards based on the small group laboratory PowerPoints. Use Anki if it works for you, but do not consider it a necessity.

• Pathoma - Watch the relevant videos before the lecture on that topic. The course follows Chapters 1-3 of Pathoma, but you will find specific diseases in later chapters as well. You can start using Pathoma now and then continue watching it as you progress through the organ blocks. You can also unsuspend Anki Pathoma tags as you go.

• UpToDate - You have access to UpToDate from the Mayo Library website. UpToDate is a helpful resource for completing the DDx assignments.

• Red Robbins Q&A - This is a textbook that has practice questions that follow along with the course material to some extent. If you like reading textbooks in order to learn, you can also read Robbins Basic Pathology.

• Other Websites - Histology Guide is probably familiar to you from the Histology Block and is still great to use during Pathology to refresh your memory.

  • Brown Digital Pathology - this site is run by Brown Medical School and has a great collection of pathological slides labeled by organ system

  • Med Utah - this site has images for pathological slides but also has good practice quiz questions. Many students find these images to be helpful for the DDx assignments as well.

• Sketchy Path - there is a Sketchy Pathology section. You can use it to watch the videos of diseases covered in class but we have found that Sketchy Pharm and Micro are much more useful than Sketchy Path. Give it a try and see if it helps you, but is not necessary.

• Student Made Resources - There are multiple study guides made by students that you can use to review right before the final exam.

• Amboss - The Amboss library is also a good resource to use to complete DDx assignments. The question bank is also useful for STEP 1, but not necessary to pass the course.

• USMLE Rx - if you have a question bank you can do 10-20 questions per day as practice. This is good practice for STEP 1 but not necessary to pass the course.