Bioinformatics Education in Pathology Training: Current Scope and Future Direction

Abstract

Training anatomic and clinical pathology residents in the principles of bioinformatics is a challenging endeavor. Most residents receive little to no formal exposure to bioinformatics during medical education, and most of the pathology training is spent interpreting histopathology slides using light microscopy or focused on laboratory regulation, management, and interpretation of discrete laboratory data. At a minimum, residents should be familiar with data structure, data pipelines, data manipulation, and data regulations within clinical laboratories. Fellowship-level training should incorporate advanced principles unique to each subspecialty. Barriers to bioinformatics education include the clinical apprenticeship training model, ill-defined educational milestones, inadequate faculty expertise, and limited exposure during medical training. Online educational resources, case-based learning, and incorporation into molecular genomics education could serve as effective educational strategies. Overall, pathology bioinformatics training can be incorporated into pathology resident curricula, provided there is motivation to incorporate, institutional support, educational resources, and adequate faculty expertise.

Establishing molecular pathology curriculum for pathology trainees and continued medical education: a collaborative work from the Molecular Pathology Study Group of the Korean Society of Pathologists

“…The project first started with the review of US experiences on the MP education during the last decade [ 7 , 9 - 12 , 14 - 18 ]. Next, the project focused on the establishment of the structured objectives and goals of MP, which was later online resource repository within KSP official website to enable continuous update and better accessibility.…”

Maintaining informatics training learning outcomes with a COVID-19 era shift to a fully online flipped course

“…The Informatics for Pathology Practice and Research program began as a series of 3 one-credit courses offered sequentially for 5 weeks each, during a singular semester. It was designed to meet the modern training needs in anatomical/clinical and experimental pathology 8 , 9 serving undergraduates, graduate students, medical students, post-doctoral fellows, residents, staff, and faculty. The series focuses on the Unix Operating System (Unix), Python Programming (Python), and Advanced Data Analysis and Visualization (ADAnV) with Pandas and Matplotlib.…”

Pathology Residency Program Special Expertise Tracks Meet the Needs of an Evolving Field

“…These special training tracks are standardized, providing residents with long-term professional development. 6 In addition to the increasing number of published examples of dedicated curricula to enhance training in the aforementioned areas, 7 - 10 the Accredited Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has adjusted the pathology residency training milestones to emphasize some nondiagnostic areas such as patient safety, compliance, quality, and informatics. 11…”