The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, founded in 1917, is a corporate level service line overseeing clinical laboratory testing at all hospitals and clinic delivery sites of the Henry Ford Health Sytem. It is composed of 42 senior staff pathologists and clinical and research scientists, complemented by 661 technical staff, who annually perform more than 11 million clinical laboratory
tests. This is one of the largest hospital-based clinical laboratories in the nation. The professional staff is subspecialty-trained to provide all pathology services required in the tertiary care practice and serve as expert consultants across seven hospitals of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine service line of the Henry Ford Health System.
The Department has a strong commitment to education, offering a free-standing pathology residency program in anatomic and clinical pathology and fellowships in Cytopathology and Pathology Informatics. The pathology residency ranks in the top 10 percent of all academic institutions world-wide for first authored, peer-reviewed scientific abstracts accepted to the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology annual meeting, the premier association of anatomic pathologists.
The Department is noted for its service activities at the national level with staff members in key leadership positions within the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, College of American Pathologists, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the American Association of Blood Banks and the Michigan Society of Pathologists. These endeavors promote our departmental focus on education, quality and the development of tools and publications for the practice of pathology.
Numerous clinically applied, translational and NIH-funded basic science research investigations are carried out and supported by the staff. The Department of Pathology has received major funding from the National Cancer Institute to expand its tissue procurement activities for research purposes. This service is a core of the Josephine Ford Cancer Center and is available to internal and external investigators through the Tissue Procurement Facility website.
The Department has been a pioneer in bringing manufacturing-based quality engineering to the laboratory environment. The department has founded the Henry Ford Production System to drive perfection in laboratory services through the implementation of LEAN methodology based on the principles of our founder, Henry Ford and the Toyota production system. All laboratory employees are LEAN trained and work in a blame-free environment that continually promotes worker empowered improvements and innovation. The Department hosts annual LEAN training courses for others to learn from these experiences. (see Henry Ford Production System)
