PrintRotation Summaries - Clinical Pathology
Laboratory Management and Informatics Course
Most pathologists will be called on to manage important clinical resources. The increasing complexity and competitiveness of the healthcare environment demands effective management by all those responsible for deploying resources. There is a broad consensus that training in management skills should be a part of the training of pathologists. Similarly because of demands for increasingly effective communication of pathology's primary product, information, pathologists must possess communication skills and be familiar with modern means for collecting, storing, and disseminating clinical information is support of patient care and education of professional colleagues.
Principles of management and informatics are challenging to convey to residents and fellows who are dealing with the urgency and workload related to patient care. In addition, because of a lack of prior exposure, many residents find it difficult to put the principles covered into a structured whole that can be remembered and applied. Therefore, in the rotation emphasis is placed on bringing in community pathologists as models of pathologists actively involved in management and informatics issues. To provide an opportunity for immediate application of these principles as they are covered, residents and fellows work together to solve relevant but synthetic problem sets.
Coordinating Teaching Faculty Member
Donald Connelly, MD, PhD, (612) 624-4689, Medical Informatics
This rotation is co-sponsored by the two pathology residency programs in the State of Minnesota. The other co-coordinator is George Klee, MD, PhD at the Mayo Clinic.Teaching Faculty Members
This rotation draws from the ranks of academic and community pathologists practicing in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. On occasion an expert from outside the state is invited to present the months topic. A listing of recent faculty is maintained at the above web site.Training Site:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis CampusDuration of Rotation:
Two monthly meetings over 9 months each year. Course runs on a two year cycle.Post Graduate Level of Residents Involved
PGY 1-5
Overview of Daily Duties and Responsibilities:
Residents attend a monthly live teleconference which is focused on a single management or informatics theme. Residents monitor the rotation's web site for supplemental materials, including the monthly problem set. The residents develop responses to the problem sets over the next two weeks, preferably by working together in small groups. At the end of the month, residents attend a monthly follow up session and participate in the discussion of the problems sets and related issues taking place in the local setting. Residents are also expected to read supplemental materials and articles provided.
Teleconferencing is used so that each set of residents spend the bulk of their time at their home location.
Goals and Objectives:
- Appreciate that the role of management in a pathologist's professional work life is important and deservng of continuous involvement and learning.
- Become familiar with key management knowledge that can facilitate and guide learning activities.
- Know the basic skill sets associated with personal leadership and group leadership.
- Understand one's own areas of strength and weakness in terms of leadership.
- Cost out a procedure or test.
- Be familiar with workload measurement and planning.
- Develop a strategy for finding a job
- Use a web-based knowledge resource compendium for clinical and other professional work.
- Understand the purpose of lab accreditation and become familiar with CAP criteria.
Structured Formal Education in Management and Informatics:
Once a month, residents and fellows meet for a Management/Informatics teleconference which originates in either the Twin Cities at the University or Mayo Clinic. The teleconference introduces a pathologist or other health care worker with relevant expertise on a management or informatics topic. The discussant provides an overview of the role of management skills in that individual's career followed by a presentation focused on a management or informatics theme. Questions and discussion ensue. The teleconference is supplemented with a handout of related materials.
Residents and fellow are also responsible for monitoring the rotation's web page, where the problem set for the month is posted. Participants are encouraged to work in small teams when dealing with the problem sets. Two weeks after the teleconference and after having an opportunity to work with the problem set, the residents and fellow at each site meet with rotation faculty to discuss the problems and cases for that month as well as to discuss any current management issues of interest.
Required Conference/Seminars:
Attendance at every session is not expected because the rotation is spread over two years. A standard of 70% attendance has been set to allow for such issues as vacations and travel to special/national conferences.
Scholarly Activities and Research During and After Rotation:
Related papers recently published in peer-reviewed journals are occasionally noted on the web site. This has not been a major component of the rotation. Residents projects do require them to seek out information on the web and from other sources. The residents are responsible for maintaining a listing of relevant sites that they have located on the World Wide Web.
Method of Resident Evaluation:
Attendance of at least 70% of the monthly meetings and the quality of participation in the monthly follow-up sessions are the most important components of residents evaluation. Residents are expected to complete on full cycle of this rotation in order to graduate. Residents who do not attend 70% of a two years cycle and participate in the problem sets must make up the entire course during the next cycle in order to graduate.
Residents are also evaluated on their interpersonal skills, professional attitudes, reliability, and ethics with members of the teaching faculty, peers, and laboratory staff. They are further evaluated on their initiative in useing the medical literature, as it relates to their assigned cases. Their timely completion of assigned interpretive reports is another component of the evaluation.
Educational Resources Available:
The campus's Biomedical Library and Wilson Library are repositories of many relevant books and periodicals. The Carlson School of Management provides a rich array of management courses. The course's web site provides convenient access to a plethora of related web sites.
Computer Information Systems for Resident Education and Service Duties:
The Department's web serve is used to house the course's web site. Many PC workstations connected to the University's high-speed network backbone are available throughout the medical school complex. Ready to access to this network is available from home.