An initiative of
Dr. Konstantin Koro
Program Director
Cassandra Saubak
We aim to train exceptional pathologists in a supportive, collegial, flexible, and academically challenging environment.
Highlights of Calgary’s DMP residency program include enthusiastic teaching faculty, hands-on and dedicated residency program leadership, friendly residency colleagues, new modern facilities, great financial and technical support, a flexible schedule that permits early electives and protected time for research, rigorous semiannual in-house examinations that serve as excellent preparation for the Royal College exam, and a strong track record of residents being accepted into prestigious subspecialty fellowships and obtaining desirable jobs after graduation.
We expect our residents to work hard, take responsibility for their learning, and be excellent colleagues. In return, we will strive to provide excellent guidance, listen to feedback, continuously improve the program to meet your learning needs and help you attain your career goals.
Our program is well-established, with an organized and structured rotation schedule and curriculum. Slide rounds and other educational activities are frequent and well-attended. In addition to the formal didactic curriculum, there are numerous additional optional teaching sessions by various subspecialties and in preparation for the Royal College exam. Most of these sessions are now offered in virtual (Zoom) or hybrid format, which allows residents to attend even if they are off-site. Our program’s rotation schedule is reasonably flexible and allows ample elective time (including away electives) and protected time for research.
The program director, program administrator, and other program leaders are experienced, dedicated, and care about the residents. We listen to our residents and respond to their needs.
As a Calgary DMP resident, you will have a large and diverse peer group. Calgary accepts 4 AP residents, 2 GP residents, 1 MM Resident and +/- 1 NP resident per year, and the residents in these programs work together throughout much of their training. Residents get along very well and have fun together, both at work and outside of work. There is an atmosphere of collaboration. Residents share interesting and educational cases, work with each other on research projects, and form study groups together.
Residents rotate at 7 training sites across Calgary, are exposed to a large volume and variety of cases in all sub-specialties of pathology, and have a pool of >100 enthusiastic teaching faculty who participate in their training. All training sites share a standard laboratory information system and electronic medical record system, so residents don’t need to relearn a new system with each rotation. Alberta also has an excellent and unified provincial electronic medical record system, making it easy to obtain case-related clinical information.
Our facilities are well-appointed. At our main training site, Foothills Medical Centre, our department is on the top floor of a new (built in 2015) building. The AP resident room has large windows with a beautiful view of Canada Olympic Park and the Rocky Mountains. The gross room and morgue are modern, bright, clean, spacious, and well-ventilated. Most of our other training sites are newer or recently remodelled.
The program provides generous financial support to residents, including a $2000/year professional development fund, up to $275 toward the CAP review course (once during training), and annual free registration to the Banff Pathology Course. Funding for research projects is available through the department, and generous funding for conference travel (for research presentations or leadership roles) is provided by the University of Calgary’s PGME office. Please see our program’s website and PGME’s website for more details.
Residents write two rigorous exams each year with the same structure, length, and difficulty as the Royal College specialty certification examination. Our residents usually return from their Royal College exam, reporting that there weren’t any surprises and that they felt well-prepared for everything. Additionally, we use the same digital imaging platform as the Royal College for our in-house exams, unknown slide rounds and some teaching sets. This ensures that our residents are already comfortable with the digital format, which gives them another advantage in the Royal College exam. Our program has an outstanding first-time success rate at the Royal College examinations.
Many of our graduates complete sub-specialty fellowships at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Emory, MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Mayo Rochester and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre. Please see the “Alumni” document for details. Our graduates successfully find employment after training, and many elect to remain in Calgary as staff pathologists.
Finally, Calgary is a fantastic, friendly and welcoming place to live. The cost of living and commute times are lower than in some other large Canadian cities, but Calgary is still large enough to offer ample cultural activities, great restaurants, and a ton of small craft breweries and distilleries. This is a fantastic city for nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. There are numerous easily accessible provincial parks, hiking trails and bike paths within and outside Calgary. The Rocky Mountains (including Banff National Park and Lake Louise) are only an hour away.
Yes, our residents are provided $2,000 per year (budget dependent) to claim educational expenses and conference travel. Additionally, we provide reimbursement each year for the Banff Pathology Course Registration Fee. As well the cost of the CAP-ACP residents review course is covered by the program once during training (usually in the year the Royal College Exam is sat).
The pass rate for the Diagnostic & Molecular Pathology program on the first attempt of the Royal College Fellowship exam at 99.8% since 2006.
We will offer up to three two interview days during the designated CaRMS period. When invited for an interview, applicants are asked to provide their first choice and second choice of date, and whether they prefer morning or afternoon.
Unfortunately, due to the complexity of our interview process, we are unable to accommodate requests for interviews outside of the designated interview days. We make every attempt to conduct our interviews in the most fair, transparent, and equitable way possible.
We use a panel format for our interviews. Both staff pathologists and current anatomical pathology residents serve as interviewers. Each applicant rotates through four different panels of two interviewers and each interview lasts about 25 minutes. Each panel has a designated set of standardized questions that are asked of all interviewees.
As with the initial CaRMS file review, each interviewer scores each applicant independently and objectively. Obviously, the interview is also intended as a way for applicants to get to know our program, and decide if they would be happy training here. Therefore, the interview includes ample time for interviewees to ask questions of current residents and staff.
This is a complex process which involves a face-to-face meeting of the interview committee immediately after the interviews are complete. The interview scores are combined with the CaRMS file review scores in order to determine the rank order. Sometimes scores are tied or are very close. In that case, there is a group discussion about the rank order. We take pride in the fact that all members of the selection committee, including our current residents, have an equal voice in ranking decisions. We make every effort to rank applicants objectively based on how well they meet our program selection criteria, and on our perception of their ability to succeed and thrive in our residency program.
Yes. You can find it here.
