Taking the Board Exam: A Rite of Passage for Pathology Residents

By Eric Gehrie, MD, FASCP

Preparation for the board exam is the ultimate rite of passage for the pathology resident. Transfusion medicine is a particularly tricky topic for residents because it involves a lot of concepts from clinical hematology, oncology, surgery and obstetrics and gynecology, which are fairly unique to the transfusion medicine practice. It’s a highly specialized subject matter. Resident exposure to these areas generally varies from residency program to residency program.

The Resident Review Session: Transfusion Medicine and Medical Microbiology, which I will co-present with Carole Vogler, MD, FASCP, and Robin Chamberland, PhD, on Thursday, Oct. 4 at the ASCP 2018 Annual Meeting, will cover topics identified as challenging for residents sitting for the American Board of Pathology exam.

My portion will be a very case-based, question-based review. This will be a lot of transfusion question-related multiple choice questions, reviewing the rationale for the right answer as well as the reason that the incorrect answers are incorrect. We’ll emphasize topics such as indications for apheresis, transfusion compatibility testing, obstetrics and hematology, and platelet management.

In the Resident Review Session, we engage the residents as active learners. This approach allows participants to gauge their knowledge and to identify areas in which they need extra study before sitting for the exam.

To learn about the ASCP 2018 Annual Meeting’s more than 250 hours of cutting edge education, click here.

Eric Gehrie, MD, FASCP, is an assistant professor of pathology with a joint appointment in surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, in Baltimore, MD. He is also the medical director of the blood bank at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and is the associate director of the Johns Hopkins pathology residency program.