Hematopathology Fellowship

Program Overview

The USC Department of Pathology offers a one-year ACGME-accredited fellowship program in hematopathology, with comprehensive training in morphologic interpretation of bone marrow and lymph node specimens, laboratory hematology, flow cytometric immunophenotyping, immunohistochemistry, molecular hematopathology, special coagulation testing and laboratory management. Fellows are exposed to a wide variety of practice settings and case material, with expanded opportunities for scholarly activity, and are required to participate in research projects, conference presentations and teaching activities.

Requirements

The candidate must have completed 3 years of either Anatomic Pathology or Clinical Pathology training or 4 years of combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology training and have a California Medical License before the start (July 1st) of the fellowship training year. A letter from the resident’s Program Director must document all rotations the resident has taken. Additional letter(s) from the resident’s Hematopathology faculty are recommended.

Types and Numbers of Appointments

Three positions for the 1-year fellowship are available.

Facilities

This Hematopathology Fellowship training program provides diverse rotations – four months each – at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, a tertiary referral center; Los Angeles General Medical Center, a large historic county hospital with a highly diverse patient population; and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, a top-tier pediatric hospital with high-volume pediatric hematopathology and referral testing for flow cytometry-based minimal residual disease (MRD). These structured rotations afford our fellows exposure to a wide variety of practice settings and case materials, with abundant opportunities for scholarly activity. In particular, four months dedicated to pediatric hematopathology and flow cytometry MRD analyses (lymphoid and myeloid) is a highly unique training experience. Training at all sites emphasizes development of problem solving skills.

Los Angeles General Medical Center

  • Largest healthcare provider in Los Angeles and one of the largest public hospitals in the U.S., with highly diverse patient population.
  • Rotation provides comprehensive training in the various morphologic and laboratory-based techniques of hematology-hematopathology to attain the knowledge, skills and attitudes to practice competently and independently.
  • Under faculty supervision, fellows are provided increasing independence and graded responsibility for work-up of cases, primary decision-making on use of ancillary testing, and junior attending-level sign-out duty with residents on the hematopathology service.
  • Fellows can obtain the necessary hands-on experience to become competent diagnosticians as well as learn the value of contemporary analytical methods, the cost associated with these tools and their limitations.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)

  • Nationally recognized and a member of the Children’s Oncology group (COG) cooperative of pediatric cancer research centers.
  • CHLA performs approximately 800 bone marrow aspirates, 300 bone marrow biopsies, 100 lymph node biopsies, and 2000 cerebrospinal fluid cytologies with approximately 120 new cases of acute leukemia (lymphoid and myeloid) per year, 40 new cases of lymphoma (non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin) per year, and a multitude of non-neoplastic acquired and congenital hematopathology conditions (bone marrow failure syndromes, congenital cytopenias, autoimmune disease, hemoglobinopathies, thalassemia syndromes, and others). In addition
    to standard coagulation assays, CHLA offers more specialized coagulation assays.
  • CHLA has large hemophilia treatment and research programs as well as clinical and laboratory expertise with other congenital coagulation disorders.
  • CHLA has a new Center for Personalized Medicine which will be a next-generation sequencing center funded by a new $50 million dollar grant to the Department of Pathology.

USC Norris Cancer Hospital

  • Tertiary care facility with an active and growing program in hematologic malignancies and stem cell transplantation.
  • Emphasis on ancillary testing, including flow cytometry and molecular assays for minimal residual disease, cytogenetics, FISH, and molecular tests (single gene and mutation panels by next generation sequencing approaches) for case material at USC Norris/Keck Hospitals as well as those sent to USC from external clients in consultation.
  • Fellow is integrated into the laboratory administration, daily quality control and pathologist oversight of the Norris Clinical Hematology Laboratory.

Faculty

Program Director

Imran N. Siddiqi, MD, PhD

Teaching Staff

Los Angeles General Medical Center
Russell K. Brynes, MD, Chief, Hematopathology Service; Co-Director, Core Laboratory
Maria E. Vergara-Lluri, MD, Section Director, Core Laboratory Hematology and Flow Cytometry Sections
David C. Yau, MD

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Brent Wood, MD, Hematopathology Division Director
Alexandra Kovach, MD, Rotation Director; Director, Hematology and Bone Marrow Labs
Milton Drachenberg, MD
Maurice O’Gorman, PhD, Vice Chair, Laboratory Medicine
Gordana Raca, MD, PhD, Director, Clinical Cytogenomics Laboratory
Ryan Schmidt, MD, Assistant Director, Clinical Genomics Laboratory

USC Norris Cancer Medical Center
Imran N. Siddiqi, MD, PhD, Program Director, Hematopathology Fellowship; Director, Hematology Laboratory
Russell K. Brynes, MD, Chief, Hematopathology Service
Ashley S. Hagiya, MD, Section Director, Flow Cytometry
Darryl Shibata, MD

Applications

For more information, please contact:

Maria Guerra (mrg@usc.edu), Program Coordinator or Imran Siddiqi, MD, Program Director (isiddiqi@usc.edu)
Department of Pathology
1200 North State Street CT A7E
Los Angeles, CA 90033
Office: (323) 409-7150
Fax: (323) 441-8193