Pathology

Shivayyogi Bhusnurmath, MD, FRCPath, Chair

Pathology
PATH 640

The Pathology course is taught in two segments—General Pathology and Systemic Pathology. The main emphasis of the course is on active learning by the students based on clinically oriented lectures and daily clinical problem solving by students in groups of ten during lab hours. This is accomplished by targeted discussions using pathology images (about 400) representing patients and clinical vignettes with built-in questions. The images are posted on the University website and made freely available on CDs to students. Periodically, gross specimens and glass slides from current hospital material are also discussed. The discussions are closely monitored by the faculty and each student is evaluated on a daily basis.

The General Pathology segment deals with how tissues respond to injury, cell death, inflammation, ischemia, thrombosis, embolism, infarction, etc. It also deals with response to infections, environmental pollutants and disease states related to abnormal immune responses. Mechanisms of tumor development and how tumors spread are studies under “neoplasia.” This is followed by a special course on Molecular Pathology techniques as applied to clinical practice.

The Systemic Pathology segment involves similar principles but applied in detail to individual organ systems like cardiovascular, respiratory, etc. It will also include interpretation of laboratory data for some of the major disease processes. A short course on Forensic Pathology is taught in the Systemic Pathology module. Several clinicopathological conferences, including difficult case seminars, are also discussed by students.

Students are mandated to draw concept maps each week and submit them for evaluation. A total of 480 test items are administered through three quizzes and three exams, including 190 based on images. All the questions are clinical problem-solving MCQ’s.

Laboratory

The lab sessions are conducted as group activities in student groups of 10-12 monitored by a clinical tutor. The students discuss gross and microscopic pathology images, electron micrographs, radiographic images and clinical cases which correlate with the concurrent lecture manual. The process involves active learning with guided discovery of etiology, pathogenesis, structural changes, clinical symptoms and signs, relevant investigations, and course of the disease for the common and prototype diseases. The students are also encouraged to learn how to distinguish between related entities. In addition, students learn to draw blood samples and do basic hematology tests on them.

Medical Nutrition
PATH 693

Medical Nutrition focuses on the relevance of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease. Presented in the this course are those components of human pathophysiology in which diet, on the basis of current knowledge, is believed to be important in either a causative or contributory way. The application of dietary knowledge to prevention of disease and the management of established disease are also discussed. Also addressed are clinical topics such as infant, maternal and geriatric nutrition; problems of obesity and related subjects; and the principles of the management of diseases such as diabetes mellitus, renal failure and atherosclerosis.

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