Summa Health System-NEOMED Program

Program Identity & Fit

Summa Health/NEOMED is a community-based, academically-affiliated pathology program in Akron with over 50 years of continuous training history, built around high specimen volume (roughly 29,500 surgical cases, 25,000 cytology specimens, and over a million clinical lab tests annually) across Summa's campuses and the affiliated Akron Children's Hospital, giving residents pediatric pathology exposure. The four-year curriculum (27 months AP, 18 months CP) grants graduated procedural responsibility in surgical pathology, autopsy, cytology, FNA, and EBUS interpretation, with two dedicated research/elective months and two PhD clinical scientists directly involved in CP teaching. The program explicitly emphasizes a small, personal, low-hierarchy attending relationship ("we're like a family") rather than the scale of large academic centers, and supports fellowship subspecialization (e.g., neuropathology) through flexible fourth-year electives. It appears to value residents who thrive with close attending access, hands-on volume-based learning, and a community pathology practice orientation while still permitting fellowship-track development.