Staff Physician- Pathology and Laboratory

About the role

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific eligibility requirements per VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) & eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after review of the EDRP application. Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply.

Responsibilities

• Surgical pathology: Derive diagnoses from gross and microscopic examination of tissues and other materials submitted by biopsy or surgical procedures. This includes interpretation of tissues submitted intraoperatively for frozen section diagnosis. Advanced subspecialty training in surgical pathology may provide additional expertise.
• Hematopathology: Provide expert hematologic diagnostic interpretations of blood, bone marrow, lymph node and fluid preparations. Provide interpretations of serum and urine electrophoreses.
• Dermatopathology: Provide expert diagnostic interpretation of inflammatory, melanocytic and non-melanocytic lesions in skin biopsies and excisions.
• Genitourinary pathology: Provide expert diagnostic interpretation of diseases involving the urinary and reproductive organs.
• Gastrointestinal pathology: Provide expert diagnostic interpretation of diseases involving the oral-esophageal, stomach, upper and lower intestinal tract as well as liver and pancreas.
• Clinical Pathology: Understand organization and principles of clinical laboratory testing. Provide consultation regarding chemistry analytic, hematologic, microbiologic, molecular diagnostic and blood bank issues. Advanced subspecialty training in clinical pathology may provide additional expertise. Examples listed below.
• Transfusion medicine: Provide expert consultation and guidance regarding blood product transfusion issues.
• Molecular diagnostics: Provide expert consultation and guidance regarding molecular genetic testing and interpretations.
• Autopsy pathology: Derive cause of death and identify diseased tissues by post-mortem necropsy and tissue examination. This function includes supervision of dieners and resident pathologists.
• Cytopathology: Derive diagnoses from microscopic examination of cellular material from gynecologic and non-gynecologic sources prepared for cytologic examination. This includes assessment of specimen adequacy and examination of prepared cell-block material. Duties may also include performance of fine-needle aspiration of palpable nodules.
• Administrative: Participate in laboratory oversight to the extent assigned and serve on institutional level committees and workgroups.
• Quality: Meet defined service and institutional level quality performance measures. Participate in or initiate laboratory or institutional quality improvement and management programs.
• Educational: Provide teaching, supervision and guidance of technologists, technicians fellows and pathology residents in the aspects of the clinical duties described above. Participate in interdisciplinary educational conferences involving clinical pathologic correlation.
• Research: Support VHA research mission through participation in collaborative or self-initiated research projects.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, you must meet the basic requirements as well as any additional requirements (if applicable) listed in the job announcement. Applicants pending the completion of training or license requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Currently employed physician(s) in VA who met the requirements for appointment under the previous qualification standard at the time of their initial appointment are deemed to have met the basic requirements of the occupation.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Current, full and unrestricted license to practice medicine or surgery in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or in the District of Columbia.
• Residency Training: Physicians must have completed residency training, approved by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in an accredited core specialty training program leading to eligibility for board certification. (NOTE: VA physicians involved in academic training programs may be required to be board certified for faculty status.) Approved residencies are:
• (1) Those approved by the accrediting bodies for graduate medical education, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or American Osteopathic Association (AOA), in the list published for the year the residency, or fellowship if applicable, was completed;
• (2) One year of post medical school training (internship, first year of residency, or transitional year residency) approved by ACGME or AOA followed by two years of post-training independent practice (performing under a full and unrestricted license) in the United States;
• (3) Non-US residency training programs followed by a minimum of three years of verified independent practice in the United States (performing under a full and unrestricted license) performing duties related to the position they are applying for (United States fellowships would be creditable towards this requirement), which the local Medical Staff Executive Committee deems to have provided the applicant with appropriate professional training and believes has exposed the Physician to an appropriate range of patient care experiences.