About the Department
The Department of Anatomic Pathology received 27,200 surgical accessions,14,500 cytology specimens, and 1,500 fine needle aspirations in calendar year 2023. Additionally, the department performs approximately 65 autopsies annually. The clinical laboratory performs approximately six million tests annually, including point-of-care services throughout the medical campus and a rapid response laboratory.
Training at BMC and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine is enhanced by our socially diverse and global patient population, as well as the depth and breadth of anatomic pathology and laboratory medicine across many medical and surgical subspecialties. Our department supports several centers of excellence on campus, including Center for Infectious Diseases, Cancer Center, Kidney Transplant Program, Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine, the Amyloid Center, and the Immigrant and Refugee Health Center Program. In addition, BMC is a level one trauma center supported by our Transfusion Medicine Service.
Our department is also affiliated with offsite community health centers and other service centers.
In addition to residency and fellowship programs, the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine also supports a Masters in Pathology Laboratory Sciences and a PhD program in pathology. These programs share facilities and some academic programs with the residency training program.
Facilities
Boston Medical Center is a modern tertiary care 514-bed facility with a distinguished tradition in academic medicine. The medical center is immediately adjacent to the campus of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and it serves as the primary training site for medical students.
Residents in anatomic pathology train in our state-of-the-art facility at 670 Albany Street, one of the few purpose-built anatomic pathology and clinical pathology laboratories in the United States. It features modern ventilation, equipment, laboratory, and office space for residents and administrative support.
Residents are also provided with shared administrative space with a conference room and lounge. On-call overnight rooms are available as needed.
Anatomic pathology facilities offer surgical pathology processing, histology, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, cytology prep. and screening, image analysis center, molecular pathology (e.g. next generation sequencing, FISH, and PCR), biobanking service, intraoperative consult suite for frozen section service, and modern autopsy suite.
The clinical pathology laboratory is a 24/7/365 state-of-the-art supported by modern automation and robotics, including:
- A new automated track in chemistry
- Automated cell analyzers and 6 -10 color flow cytometry in hematology
- Proteomic and molecular platforms and a commissioned BSL-3 containment room in microbiology
- Automated cross-matching in the Blood Bank
The 670 Albany Street building is also home to Boston University pathology research space that features modern pathology equipment including confocal, FACScan, and digital brightfield and immunofluorescence slide-scanning microscopes.