WVU Pathologists' Assistant Program

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WVU Pathologists' Assistant Program

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from WVU Pathologists' Assistant Program, College & University, 64 Medical Center Drive, Morgantown, WV.

Educating high quality, skilled pathologists' assistants for a variety of healthcare settings in both surgical and autopsy services to foster exceptional patient and hospital outcomes.

12/05/2025

Applications for our class of 2028 are now open! 🥳

Before you submit your application, make sure to go over these FAQs to make sure you’ve got all your bases covered 👍🏻

Ready to get started on an amazing new career path? Head to https://medicine.wvu.edu/pathologists-assistant-program/ to check out more information about our program and to apply!

08/01/2025

Happy August! This month we want to spotlight one of our wonderful faculty members, Sam Pan!💀🔪🩸

Sam is our autopsy PA and does a spectacular job in her autopsy duties, teaching in the classroom, giving lectures and teaching residents, and helping out wherever she’s needed. As a graduate of our program in 2021, Sam has previously worked in St. Louis and then brought her talent to the mountain state in 2023. Since then, she’s taken over the autopsy sector of the program and has revamped our curriculum as well as given multiple lectures and talks around the state to pathologist, residents, and other clinical faculty. She’s been an exceptional addition to our WVU team and we are so lucky to have her and all her knowledge to pass on to all of our students in the program!

Get to know Sam a little more in this month faculty spotlight 🤗

06/09/2025

Congratulations to our Program Director Michelle Costas for receiving the Pathologists’ Assistant of the Year Award during the Pathology, Anatomy, and Laboratory Medicine dinner!

Michelle has been nothing short of stellar in her time here at WVU. She began her career here in 2007 as a PathA in Ruby’s gross room for 8 years and then stepped up to be the program director in 2015. She has been with the university for 18 years and is continually recognizing others for their hard work, so we are very excited to see her get recognized for hers.

Michelle does an excellent job juggling all of the roles she takes on with the program including lecturing, running labs, writing exams and quizzes, working with NAACLS and AAPA on program improvements and functions, going to countless meetings and conventions, working directly with students, writing protocols and lesson plans, leading faculty meetings and training, diving headfirst to cover autopsies and gross room coverage… phew! And that’s not even close to all she does! 😮‍💨

We’re all VERY thankful for her work each and every day and couldn’t be more thrilled to have her at the helm of such a successful program.

Thank you for all your hard work Michelle, and congrats on your award and recognition! 🏆

06/03/2025

We 🫀Heart Lab!

Hearts aren’t just the center of our cardiovascular system and vital to life, but are also critical organs when looking for causes of death, congenital anomalies, and much much more!

Our students got hands on experience sectioning hearts which includes assessing coronary arteries, examining ventricular walls for infarcts, following blood flow through the heart, and assessing valve competency and structure, among multiple other points of evaluation.

Can you identify the congenital anomaly in the last slide? And what other major congenital malformation might you find this in, along with three other cardinal signs? 👀

We are very grateful for our HGR program here at WVU for allowing us to receive so many specimens for our students to practice on before grossing these incredible organs at autopsy or on the grossing bench 🙌🏻

Interested in the PathA progression? Feel free to reach out to us with any questions or to get more information on applying to the WVU program! 💙🤍💛

04/14/2025

Happy Pathologists’ Assistant’s Day! 🧠🫀🫁🔪🔬

We love each of our Pathologists’ Assistants and our PathA students and are so grateful for all they do every day!

Never heard of a Pathologists’ Assistant? Find out more about our field above or reach out for more information ➡️➡️➡️

Don’t forget to thank your favorite Pathologists’ Assistant today! 🫶🏻

04/01/2025

The WVU Pathologists’ Assistant program visited a local middle school career fair last week to share our profession and love for pathology! 👀🫀🫁🧠🦷🔪💀

Over 600 students made their way through the fair and had, well, LOTS of different opinions on our booth 🫀🫁🧠 ranging from “wow, cool!” To “are these real organs?!” To the most common “EEEWWWWW,” we know we at least got their interest!

We were able to highlight the importance of the Path Assist profession in the diagnostic process and explain how integral we are to the healthcare they and their families receive. We also got to show them the same organs under the microscope and talk to them about the histotechnologists’ role in diagnosis, which they thought was “so pretty!”

Finally, we had a prize wheel that corresponded to a part of the body. Whichever they landed on, we asked them a question correlating to that part, and if they got it right they earned a sticker. Some of our favorites were:

Q: how much does the brain weigh?
A: 35 pounds?

Q: how many lobes do your lungs have?
A: Uh…. 19..?

Q: Can you point to your kidneys?
A: *Thinks hard for a minute, then points to his actual knees* “I’m a kid, and here’s my knees!”

We had an absolute blast with the students and can’t wait to come see them again next year! A special thanks to our first year students for joining us and showing us and the students how much they love what they do!

03/28/2025

Fun Fact Friday! 🦵🏻💪🏻

Some specimens can be returned to the patient, given that proper reasoning and documentation are provided. Most reasons include religious or burial purposes, as people believe they are to be buried with all of their organs and body parts, so they will keep them frozen or preserved their whole lives until they die! (Sometimes even in bbq smokers…) More famously, some people wish to receive their placentas back for multiple purposes: religious burial, photography, or even consumption. Hospital policy varies from location to location, so be sure to check in with your facility beforehand if you are interested in your specimen being returned to you.

*Please do not consume or ingest any specimen returned to you from pathology as they are handled in non-sterile environments*

03/17/2025

Sending the Luck of the Lab to all our Pathologists’ Assistants out there today! 🍀🌈

03/03/2025

While March usually makes us think of all things green, leprechauns, and three leaf clovers, the PathA program usually thinks of another green thing… Gallbladders! 🟢

These pear-shaped organs are a staple on a PA’s bench, so we wanted to share a little overview of what these little guys are all about. Swipe to learn more about anatomy, pathology, and grossing of gallbladders, and how the first experience with grossing gallbladders went for our first year students! (Check the comments to see what happens when you cut a gallbladder under pressure 👀)

Do you like grossing gallbladders? Have you seen any cool GB cases? Share your thoughts with us below!!

02/17/2025

The application deadline is fast approaching, don’t get caught missing your chance to join us in Morgantown next year! 🔵🟡⚪️

Please visit our website below to check admission requirements, shadowing documentation, and prerequisites before submitted your application. No late or incomplete applications will be accepted!

More information at:
https://medicine.hsc.wvu.edu/pa

01/27/2025

New beginnings and endless possibilities for the Class of 2026 ✨

We began the first week of January with orientation and a welcome reception to get to know each of the 15 students in our (all female!) cohort entering their first year with us. They received a tour, spoke to and got to know the faculty members, received program specific training, and got to know more about what lies ahead for them the next two years!

They hit the ground running the first two weeks of class with lectures in anatomical techniques, human anatomy, histology, and microanatomy (phew!). They also attended our first hands on labs where we go over basic techniques of measuring, inking, cutting, etc. and let the students get to handle human specimens from our Human Gift Registry donor bodies. Some of our students even got to begin their rotations in the hospital gross room working on real patient cases with our Pathologists’ Assistant faculty.

We are very excited and happy to have our new cohort with us, and starting off so strong at that! Stay tuned to see their journey through didactic year! 🔵🟡⚪️

Address

64 Medical Center Drive
Morgantown, WV
26506

Website

https://medicine.wvu.edu/pathologists-assistant-program/

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