Increasing the supply of forensic pathologists in LOS angeles county LOS angeles county department of medical examiner-coroner 1104 N. Mission road LOS angeles, CA 90033 jonathan lucas, chief…

The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner will use $163,227 in funding from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance under the National Institute of Justice Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants program to train one additional forensic pathology fellow in 2022-23. The fellowship program, which trains forensic pathologists to perform autopsies and determine cause and manner of death, will provide the fellow experience in a large urban medical examiner's office that handles over 10,000 cases per year. The fellow will gain exposure to board-certified consultants in various specialties and on-site facilities such as a CT scanner and toxicology and toolmark laboratories. The funding will support expanding the fellowship program's capacity to fulfill its role in addressing the nationwide shortage of trained forensic pathologists.

Increasing the supply of forensic pathologists in LOS angeles county LOS angeles county department of medical examiner-coroner 1104 N. Mission road LOS angeles, CA 90033 jonathan lucas, chief medical examiner-coroner/department head project abstract there is a nationwide shortage of trained forensic pathologists in the united states. The national academy of sciences found in 2009 that only about 70% of job openings for forensic pathologists are filled annually. The shortfall in pathologists is attributed to manpower shortages and/or insufficient funding. LOS angeles county department of medical examiner-coroner (DMEC) is one of the largest medical examiner's offices in the united states. Since 1965, the office has had an acgme-accredited forensic pathology fellowship program. In the past 30 years the program has trained 60 forensic pathology fellows, most of whom are currently in practice. The office is provisionally accredited by the national association of medical examiners. Unique features of this fellowship program include a case load of over 10,000 per year drawn from a population of over 10 million; facilities recently upgraded to include a CT scanner; access to a wide variety of board-certified consultants, including odontologists, an anthropologist, and radiologists; in-house toxicology, tool mark, and gunshot residue laboratories; and paid travel to a national forensic conference and to training in forensic anthropology. The teaching staff currently consists of 13 board-certified forensic pathologists, as well as consultants in anesthesiology, cardiology, ophthalmologic pathology, pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology, surgery, surgical pathology, hematopathology, toxicology, and infectious disease. Current research initiatives include testing historical blood samples to determine whether covid-19 was circulating in the population before the known outbreak in 2019, usefulness of genetic diagnosis at autopsy, and methods of improving contagious disease reporting in a medical examiner's office. Local funding for this one-year program provides for two fellows per year. However, the acgme has approved the office to train up to six fellows per year. Funding has never permitted six fellows; there is thus untapped potential in this fellowship program. Funding this proposal will allow LOS angeles DMEC to train one additional forensic pathology fellow in 2022-23.