Training Sites

Emad Alqassim.

At Buffalo General Medical Center, residents like Emad Y. Alqassim, MD, PhD, train to prepare blood specimens for patients who need blood transfusions. Alqassim says the many labs he has trained in have enhanced his experience.

The training program is an integrated one, primarily utilizing the resources of University-affiliated teaching hospitals and a freestanding high volume clinical laboratory.

Buffalo General Medical Center, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Oishei Children’s Hospital, and the Center for Laboratory Medicine are part of the Kaleida Health System, the largest health care provider in Western New York. The other affiliated hospitals are the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Erie County Medical Center and the Veterans Administration Western New York Health System. The value of this integrated approach is in providing an extensive, varied and balanced experience that meets the individual and collective needs of its trainees. The strengths of the various laboratories are utilized to provide for the needs of the trainee.

Among the University-affiliated hospitals, the Buffalo General Medical Center and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center currently form the "core" of the anatomic pathology program. These institutions, located across the street from each other, offer a very broad and extensive spectrum of patient material that meets most of the program's educational needs in anatomic pathology.  

Experience in informatics and laboratory management is provided both through didactic lectures and hands-on experience at all sites.

The institutions below comprise the training sites in the program. The rotations offered at that site are listed with each specialty area.

Buffalo General Medical Center

A large volume of surgical pathology and cytology material is available for resident training at the Buffalo General Medical Center, as well as subspecialty services such as renal pathology, bone marrow pathology, flow cytometry, neuropathology and dermatopathology.

A laboratory service devoted to the study of bone pathology and a laboratory for the study of neuropathology and neuromuscular disease, which is recognized as an established national referral center are on the premises of the Buffalo General Medical Center.

Erie County Medical Center

Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) has a very active head and neck surgical service.

Program Emphasis:

  • Head and Neck Surgical Pathology

Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office

Program Emphasis:

  • Forensic pathology

The office of the Erie County Medical Examiner, located at ECMC, is used to provide forensic pathology experience during the period of anatomic pathology training.

Kaleida Health Laboratories

In clinical pathology, the experience is concentrated in Kaleida Health’s Laboratories. The laboratories encompassing the consolidated laboratory operation of Kaleida Health include those located at Buffalo General Medical Center, Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Oishei Children’s Hospital, DeGraff Memorial Hospital, and the Center for Laboratory Medicine at Flint Road in Williamsville, NY.

These laboratories perform over five million billable (12 million-total) tests per year, offering routine, stat, esoteric/specialty, and point of care testing. This is a Reference Laboratory that services the Western NY community, as well as providing National Specialty Referral Services. The laboratory menu includes over 1000 different tests, from routine profiles to the most esoteric procedures, using technologically advanced instrumentation with computerized test reporting. The laboratory has a staff of over 400 people.

Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital

Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital has a very active surgical service and is a site for advanced surgical pathology training.  

Program Emphasis:

  • Surgical Pathology

Oishei Children's Hospital

At the Oishei Children's Hospital, residents are exposed to pediatric pathology and to a staff with special expertise in this area.

Program Emphasis:

  • Pediatric pathology
  • Special Hematology/Special coagulation laboratory

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

The experience in Kaleida Health’s laboratories is supplemented by experiences at the Roswell Park’s specialized clinical pathology services (Cytogenetics, Flow Cytometry, Molecular Pathology, HLA, Transfusion Services).

Veterans Administration Western New York Healthcare System

The experience in Kaleida Health’s laboratories is supplemented by experiences at the the Department of Veterans Administration Western New York Health System (particularly in Surgical Pathology, including Dermatopathology and Hematopathology, Laboratory Management, and Microbiology).  

Program Emphasis:

  • Clinical Pathology
  • Anatomic pathology (surgical pathology/autopsy pathology/dermatopathology)
  • Hematology/Hematopathology
  • Microbiology
  • Laboratory Management