Alan Rampy

About Alan Rampy

The growing shortage of pathologists is the greatest challenge facing our specialty. As a long-time pathologist and educator, I have worked for many years to address this issue, but over the past decade my efforts have become more direct and intentional. In my view, the only sustainable solution is to attract more students to pathology through awareness, advocacy, and outreach.

At Dell Medical School, where I joined as inaugural faculty in 2015, I was encouraged by the Dean to “re-think” medical education. Recognizing the diminishing presence of pathology in integrated curricula, I set out to re-establish it as a foundational science. With the support of other course directors, I identified essential pathology content and integrated it into all five Foundational Sciences courses of our accelerated 12-month curriculum. My teaching emphasizes not only central concepts but also the collaborative role of pathologists alongside clinicians in patient care.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a cornerstone of our curriculum. Each week, students work through one of 62 PBL cases we developed, all of which incorporate pathology and laboratory medicine objectives. I also teach histology with pathology correlations during weekly anatomy labs. In addition, I co-direct our 14-week capstone Pathophysiology course, built on the Pathology Competencies for Medical Education published by the Association for Academic Pathology. While I deliver much of the content, I also engage clinicians to team-teach, reinforcing pathology’s clinical relevance. I further contribute to a fourth-year elective in digital and computational pathology and informatics.

This comprehensive, integrated approach has produced excellent outcomes – our students consistently achieve high scores on internal assessments and on pathology components of national standardized exams.

Outside the classroom, I serve as Faculty Lead for our Pathology Interest Group (PIG). Beyond routine activities, members now assist with anatomy lab education, tissue sectioning, and histology review, which they then teach to first-year students under my supervision. One of our third-year students, who serves as PIG Director, recently received the College of American Pathologists Distinguished Medical Student Award. He and a second-year student are pursuing pathology research with me as they prepare for residency. I also serve on the CAP Future Pathologist Champion Committee and the Digital Pathology Association Education Committee, both of which aim to inspire student interest in pathology.

By embedding pathology throughout the curriculum and providing mentorship and exposure, I hope to increase awareness and enthusiasm for our field – and in doing so, help address the workforce shortage through education, advocacy, and outreach.