Forensic Pathology Residency Training and Autopsy Orientation Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

In the Forensic Pathology Residency Training Program, students from the University of California San Diego and the Navy in their third year of a pathology residency train at the Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO), performing external examinations, autopsies, microscopic tissue examinations, and other evaluations. The residents are supervised by a staff pathologist.In a related program, the UCSD’s general medical students and first-year pathology residents participate in a weeklong autopsy orientation. Participants discuss cases with MEO pathologists at a daily morning meeting and observe the doctors at work. The programs are designed to interest medical students and pathology residents in the value of the autopsy and autopsy technique in the practice of clinical medicine, regardless of their ultimate area of specialty. Forensic pathology provides a unique opportunity to see and explore the consequences of disease, trauma, and anatomic variant or congenital defect and to develop analytical techniques applicable to any medical specialty to determine cause and manner of deaths. The programs contribute to the MEO’s regional value as much more than just the “county morgue.” The MEO’s activities strike a balance between service, education and research. These functions each support the other, making the Medical Examiner a regional center of excellence.