Department of Pathology

  

Gastrointestinal Pathology Center of Excellence

Faculty

• Alyssa Krasinskas, MD
• Jon M. Davison, MD
• Shih-Fan Kuan, MD, PhD
• Douglas J. Hartman, MD
• Reetesh K. Pai, MD
• Aatur D. Singhi, MD, PhD
• Sheldon Bastacky, MD
• Simion Chiosea, MD
• Sarah Navina, MD
• Robert Peel, MD
• Karen Schoedel, MD
• Raja Seethala, MD

Mission Statement

The Gastrointestinal Pathology COE is committed to providing expert surgical pathology diagnoses related to disorders of the luminal GI tract and pancreas. The staff is also dedicated to teaching GI and Pancreas Pathology to our GI Pathology Fellow, Pathology Residents, Surgical Pathology Fellows, GI clinicians and medical students. Several clinical-based and pathology-based conferences are available for pathology residents and fellows to attend each week. The GI COE has faculty who are actively pursuing GI-related research covering broad areas such as helicobacter pylori infection, the role of probiotics in health and disease, the biology of intestinal mucins, inflammatory bowel disease and the application of molecular diagnostics to GI Pathology.

Clinical Activities

The GI Pathology COE handles over 16,000 GI biopsies, 4,500 GI resections and 1,100 GI consults per year. Our clinical service is covered by three benches: One biopsy and conference bench ("GI Quicks 1"), one biopsy and consult bench ("GI Quicks 2") and one GI resection bench ("GI Bigs"). Our COE contributes to weekly multidisciplinary clinicopathologic conferences: Pancreas Cancer Conference, Barrett’s Esophagus Conference, IBD Conference, and bi-weekly GI Tumor Board. Our COE has instituted routine molecular and immunohistochemical testing on all resected colorectal cancers to provide both theranostic and genetic (inheritable) information to our clinical colleagues in real-time. Our COE is actively involved in banking tumors from resected specimens for both our clinical tissue bank and other institutional studies that have patient consent.

Research

Numerous research opportunities exist in the GI Pathology COE. Faculty members are actively pursuing research in the areas such as Barrett’s esophagus and early stage esophageal adenocarcinomas, mucin expression and molecular genetics of colon cancer, pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease, treatment effect and molecular profiles of pancreatic cancer, and pathogenesis of peritoneal diseases (such as disseminated mucinous neoplasms and mesotheliomas). Each year, each GI Pathology Fellow partakes in a QA project with a GI pathologist mentor.

Teaching

Faculty members of the GI Pathology COE are actively involved in teaching pathology residents and fellows when they rotate on the clinical GI Quick and GI Bigs rotations and through didactic lectures and unknown conferences on topics of the GI tract and pancreas scheduled throughout the year. The COE also holds a weekly QA/interesting case conference and a monthly Journal Club. Faculty members are also nationally recognized experts in their field and present lectures for CME credit at various local, national and international venues, such as at the annual USCAP, ASCP and CAP meetings.

Training

The GI Pathology COE training program provides core clinical diagnostic training in disorders of the luminal GI tract and pancreas. Training is also provided in both hepatic pathology (through our Transplant & Hepatic COE) and molecular pathology (through our Molecular Anatomic Pathology Laboratory). The GI pathology fellow is provided time to perform research and to attend and contribute to numerous didactic and clinical conferences.

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