Pathology Fellowships (2023)

Saint Louis University School of Medicine offers a one-year, ACGME-accredited fellowship training experience in blood banking/transfusion medicine. The graduate will be qualified to be a medical director in any transfusion medicine setting. Program applicants must be board-certified or -eligible in clinical pathology, anatomic pathology/clinical pathology, hematology, or another relevant specialty.

The program offers the fellow a broad range of educational experiences in academic and community hospital practice in all areas of transfusion medicine.

Training is incorporated within three teaching hospitals and a regional blood donor center. These include SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital, SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, and ImpactLife community blood center.

SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital is an academic Level 1 trauma center that offers high-complexity medical care including solid organ and bone marrow transplantation and subspecialized surgery. These activities are supported by the medical center’s transfusion medicine service. An active apheresis service performs therapeutic procedures, collects peripheral blood progenitor cells, and provides outpatient transfusions and therapeutic phlebotomy. Fellows also rotate within the HLA lab to learn how molecular and serological evaluations are performed.

SSM Health Saint Mary’s Hospital is centrally located in metro St. Louis and specializes in high-risk pregnancy care and fetal surgery. Additionally, the hospital has a Level II Time Critical Diagnosis STEMI Center and a certified stroke center. Although a community hospital in orientation, the hospital operates as a university teaching hospital, offering an independent, accredited internal medicine residency program. It also serves as the primary training site for St. Louis University School of Medicine's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and its Family Practice Residency programs. Fellows will have a one-month rotation at this site, which provides a robust experience in perinatal transfusion medicine.

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital boasts a full range of pediatric services, including a Level 1 trauma center designation and a Level 4 NICU designation. Cardinal Glennon serves the pediatric needs of the greater St. Louis metropolitan area including eastern Missouri and southern Illinois. The NICU is licensed for 65 beds, the PICU is licensed for 21 beds, and the hospital has a total inpatient capacity of 195 beds. Cardinal Glennon has a busy transfusion service providing the fellow with comprehensive education in neonatal and pediatric transfusion medicine.

ImpactLife is the provider of blood products and services to much of the St. Louis region. Fellows will obtain extensive experience in the medical, operational, and regulatory aspects of blood collection and will gain expertise in high-complexity infectious disease testing and referred serological evaluations.

In addition to clinical rotations, the fellow is provided with a one-month focused research rotation and will be engaged in research and development activities, quality assurance projects, and educational efforts throughout their fellowship year. Here is an example of the transfusion medicine fellowship rotation schedule.

View Example Rotation Schedule

The Saint Louis University Department of Pathology offers a one-year accredited training program in forensic pathology directed toward board certification. The training is based at the City of St. Louis Medical Examiner's Office. The fellow functions as a forensic pathologist under the supervision of a senior pathologist and conducts autopsies (up to two daily), attends scenes and interacts with families, treating physicians, police and attorneys.

Case material is supplemented by selected cases from surrounding jurisdictions. There are dedicated rotations in toxicology and police laboratories, monthly clinicopathology conferences with trauma surgery service, attendance at Medicolegal Death Investigators' Course and a national meeting.

Inquiries should be sent to:

The gastrointestinal and hepatic pathology fellowship at Saint Louis University is a one-year ACGME-accredited program. The program exposes fellows to a broad spectrum of biopsy and surgical specimens relating to adult and pediatric gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary disease.

SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital and SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center provide the clinical material for the program, including the luminal GI tract, liver, pancreas and biliary tract ranging from small biopsies to radical resection and transplantation. Outside consultation material and intraoperative consultation are also included. Fellows participate in and present at the multidisciplinary clinical conference. Fellows are encouraged to participate in clinical research.

The ACGME-accredited one-year hematopathology fellowship at Saint Louis University School of Medicine is an apprenticeship in academic hematopathology. The trainee is the junior member of the hematopathology staff and, during training, becomes competent in all aspects of hematopathology, developing technical, managerial, consultative, diagnostic and scientific skills.

Integral to the trainee's education is the correlation of the cytomorphological and histologic findings with the patient’s clinical presentation and other pathological findings, including those seen in other areas of the laboratory. This could include the flow cytometric immunophenotypic findings, molecular diagnostic findings, as well as immunophenotypic analysis by immunoperoxidase and enzyme cytochemical techniques, and the performance, interpretation, and application of coagulation testing.

Inquiries should be sent to:

Katherine Robbins, M.D.
Director, Hematopathology Residency Program
Hematopathology Fellowship
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Department of Pathology
1402 S. Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104

Phone: 314-617-3831
Fax: 314-617-2786
Katherine.Robbins1@ssmhealth.com

The pediatric pathology fellowship at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center and Saint Louis University Department of Pathology allows trainees to develop an understanding of diseases of infants and children. Pediatric autopsy and surgical pathology are stressed during the one-year fellowship, and opportunities for subspecialty training in neonatal pathology, cytogenetics, clinical pathology, pediatric hematopathology, metabolic, skeletal muscle, central nervous system and renal disease are available.

Learning resources include a large congenital heart museum, state-of-the-art electron microscopy, immunohistology and flow cytometry laboratories, facilities for morphometric and recombinant DNA analysis, as well as an active research division. Research opportunities are numerous, both in anatomic and experimental pathology. The fellow is a liaison between the pathology department and clinicians and presents clinical pathologic correlations at neonatal, cardiology, gastrointestinal and pediatric surgical and autopsy pathology conferences.

Inquiries should be sent to:

Miguel Guzman, M.D.
Director, Pediatric Pathology Residency Program
SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center
1465 South Grand Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63104

Phone: 314-577-5337
Fax: 314-268-6407
Miguel.Guzman@ssmhealth.com

The post-sophomore graduate fellowship in pathology at Saint Louis University is a full-time course of study in pathology for one academic year. It provides an educational experience to medical students interested in a career in pathology and furthering their understanding of disease mechanisms. During the fellowship, students have service, conference and teaching activities similar to those of a first-year pathology resident. With faculty, the post-sophomore fellow performs autopsies and examines surgical specimens. Research opportunities in clinical and experimental pathology and elective experiences in subspecialty areas in pathology are available, and the fellowship will be tailored to each student's interests.

Inquiries should be sent to:

Emily Reisenbichler, M.D.
Program Director, Pathology Residency Training Program
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Department of Pathology
1402 South Grand Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63104

Phone: 314-617-2794
Fax: 314-617-2788
Emily.Reisenbichler@slucare.ssmhealth.com