Welcome Letter from the Program Director's

Drs. Batalis (left) and Lewin
Nick Batalis, M.D. (left) and David Lewin, M.D..

Welcome to the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine residency program at the Medical University of South Carolina. We are proud to offer an evenly balanced, four-year combined residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology with abundant elective time that allows our trainees to customize their residency experience and prepare for any area of future practice. Below are some highlights of our program, please take a look around our site and social media pages (@MUSCpathology) and let us know if you have any questions.

Atmosphere: Our department and university embraces and strives for diversity and prides itself on a family-like atmosphere with collegial relationships between our students, trainees, faculty, and staff alike. This is evidenced by the low faculty turnover and numerous former MUSC students and trainees that are now faculty members.

Education: The pathology faculty at MUSC is deeply committed to the education of our residents and are intricately involved in day-to-day service driven educational opportunities, our ongoing resident lecture series, subspecialty teaching conferences, and the oversight and planning of our curriculum. Many of our faculty have national distinctions through their various subspecialty organizations, yet are present and available to teach our residents at the scope and the podium. Residents also have abundant opportunities to develop their own teaching skills on clinical rotations along with opportunities to lead small-group and large lecture activities for our pre-clinical medical students.

Opportunity: We have several strong in-house fellowships in a variety of fields to which many of our residents matriculate, and those residents wanting to pursue their fellowship training elsewhere have had great success in obtaining top fellowships at some of the nation’s leading institutions. Additionally, we encourage our residents to become involved in opportunities outside our program including committee and leadership positions within our university and in national pathology organizations. Many of our faculty are involved in such work and we encourage our residents to do likewise and broaden their horizons.

Research: The program provides many opportunities for residents to become engaged in research. All residents will author or present small projects at some point during their training, with many doing more, as the department will fund each resident to present at two meetings per year. Additionally, departmental resident research grants are available for those residents who need some funding to support their research. While most of our residents become involved with clinical-based research, trainees interested in basic science research have the opportunity to collaborate with our department’s basic science division that have a focus on cancer, genetics and genomics, and hearing loss.

Support: We are very fortunate to have generous support from our Chair to fund our program’s activities and enhance the education of our trainees. This includes financial support for educational products (e.g. books, online subscriptions, etc.), attendance at pathology meetings, and research projects along with funding our monthly resident meetings, yearly retreat, and providing convenient workspaces customized to the needs of the trainees.

Nick Batalis, MD and David Lewin, MD