The pathology fellowship application crisis: The current state and suggestions for remediation

Amanda C Herrmann; Cheryl Hanau; Donald Karcher; Douglas C Miller; Alexandra Murtha; Ashley E Sanders; Charles Timmons; Karen L Kaul; a work group of the Association of Pathology Chairs' Graduate Medical Education Committee

doi:10.1016/j.acpath.2022.100029

The pathology fellowship application crisis: The current state and suggestions for remediation

Acad Pathol. 2022 Jun 25;9(1):100029. doi: 10.1016/j.acpath.2022.100029. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Amanda C Herrmann¹, Cheryl Hanau², Donald Karcher³, Douglas C Miller⁴, Alexandra Murtha⁵, Ashley E Sanders⁶, Charles Timmons⁷, Karen L Kaul⁸; a work group of the Association of Pathology Chairs' Graduate Medical Education Committee

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX, USA.
² Department of Pathology, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
³ Department of Pathology, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
⁴ Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MO, USA.
⁵ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA.
⁷ Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
⁸ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL, USA.

Abstract

Problems within the Pathology fellowship application process in the US have been recognized and reported for years. Recently, members of the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) of the Association of Pathology Chairs (APC) and collaborators collected survey data from the residents themselves and the fellowship programs, as represented by both the fellowship program directors (members of the Fellowship Directors Ad Hoc Committee, FDAHC) and the program administrators (members of the Graduate Medical Education Administrators Section, GMEAS). These data are presented and discussed, and potential steps to resolve some of the problems around fellowship applications in pathology are presented.

Keywords: Fellowship; Match; Pathology; Pathology education; Subspecialty; Training.