Residency Program Overview
The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine offers 16 positions in its four-year combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology (AP/CP) Residency Program—the only pathology training program in Arizona. Our residents typically include three or four graduates from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, one or two MD or DO graduates from other Arizona schools, and the remainder recruited from across the U.S. and around the world, including international medical graduates. This blend of native Arizonans, transplants from other states, and immigrants mirrors the diversity of our faculty, our community, and the patients we serve.
Training Sites and Structure
Residency training takes place across three main sites: Banner University Medical Center Tucson, the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Healthcare System, and the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner. AP and CP training is fully integrated, with residents rotating through both disciplines throughout all four years. Rotations are typically one month in length, totaling at least 23 months in required AP services and 19 months in required CP services. Residents also have four months of elective time, with up to two months available for training at outside institutions. Our goal is to ensure graduates are thoroughly prepared for the combined AP/CP board exams and ready to enter practice as well-rounded general pathologists, while also providing a strong foundation for fellowship training and academic careers.
Banner University Medical Center Tucson
The majority of training occurs at Banner University Medical Center Tucson, a tertiary care center affiliated with the University of Arizona College of Medicine. This facility serves local patients, seasonal residents (“snowbirds”), and referral cases from across the state, adjacent states, and occasionally Mexico. Residents encounter a broad spectrum of cases—from common community diagnoses to rare and complex conditions requiring subspecialty expertise.
All surgical pathology faculty have subspecialty training, and while residents are not assigned to specialty-specific services, they sign out cases daily with multiple attendings, ensuring exposure to expert review in each area. Banner also serves as the autopsy hub for the Banner hospital network, offering a robust medical autopsy service led by dedicated faculty and staff. Specialized CP rotations—hematopathology, chemistry, microbiology, and transfusion medicine—are also based here, each led by subspecialty-trained faculty.
Southern Arizona Veterans Administration Healthcare System
The VA provides a complementary training experience, with generally lower case volumes and a generalist model of practice. Most faculty have some subspecialty training but work across both AP and CP. Residents in surgical pathology sign out all cases with a single attending, and CP residents manage hematology, chemistry, and microbiology under one faculty member. This environment offers valuable exposure to the workflow and scope of practice typical of a community hospital.
Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner
Residents complete a month-long rotation at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, usually in their fourth year, though those with a strong interest in forensics may take it earlier as an elective. Due to its location near the U.S.–Mexico border, this office often appears in local and national news. Residents gain hands-on experience in forensic autopsy, encountering both routine cases for a city of this size and unique cases involving the challenges and tragedies of desert border crossings.
Residency Program Director- Matthew Ball, DO
Associate Program Director- Peter Manchen, DO
For information regarding the Pathology Residency Program, please contact the Residency Program Manager,
Sonia Romo, at sromo1@arizona.edu