Forensic Pathology training at USF is conducted by the faculty at the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Department in Tampa. Hillsborough County has a population base of 1,574,115, encompasses 1072 square miles, and has its seat in the City of Tampa. The County performs approximately 10,800 death investigations per year, over 1300 of these involve autopsies.

Mission and Emphasis

The mission of our program is to provide comprehensive training in forensic pathology that will enable the fellow to practice in the field with competence, confidence, and compassion; fellows are expected to become American Board of Pathology Diplomates in Forensic Pathology.

The fellow will participate in a diverse array of autopsies involving traumatic and non-traumatic deaths, and learn skills and techniques specific to each category, as well as to reconstruct pathophysiological processes leading to death in specific cases. The fellow will learn to successfully integrate and communicate autopsy findings with law enforcement, attorneys, family members, and health care professionals in other disciplines. Interdisciplinary conferences are considered essential to training. We will provide the fellow with a congenial and welcoming environment that is conducive to learning.

After graduation, the fellow will be equipped to practice as a competent medical examiner or coroner’s pathologist, or to enter academic practice as the director of the autopsy service of a teaching hospital. The emphasis in our program is on the acquisition of analytical and cognitive abilities to permit the fellow to function as an expert consultant to the legal, academic medical and practicing medical communities. The fellow will be prepared to conduct outreach efforts with various governmental entities and non-governmental community groups on a local, state, and national level.

Program Aims

1. The program will graduate competent, board eligible forensic pathologists with the technical and analytical abilities to practice in a variety of settings. 

2. The program will train fellows to build upon their existing research experience and demonstrate this through scholarly activities.

3. Through a variety of inter-disciplinary interactions, the program will impart and nurture values of collaboration, professionalism, and lifelong learning.

Required Rotations

A fellow can expect to perform over 200 autopsies during academic year, testify in depositions, and potentially testify in court (murder trials in Hillsborough County come to trial anywhere from 6 to 18 months after arrest). Each fellow spends time at the Regional Crime Laboratory of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and attends a week-long course in forensic toxicology with Axis Forensic Toxicology.  There are two in-house forensic toxicologists for on-site consultations and exposure to forensic anthropology is through opportunities to attend scenes and examinations performed at the Medical Examiner Department.