The Ophthalmic Pathology Service at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) is a major referral center for the Metropolitan area and the Northeastern US. The goal of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is to strive for excellence in all of our programs: education, service, and research. Our aims are to enhance NYEE's service as the leading provider of ophthalmic specialty care in the New York Metropolitan region, to further the educational and research programs of our department of Ophthalmology, and to continue to strive for excellence in all of these areas within our institution for the benefit of the patients we serve. The Pathology Service continues to expand its clinical outreach programs, develop more intensive programs for resident education, and acquire additional research capabilities.
The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine provides timely, critical support for the laboratory needs of the clinic population, inpatients, and ambulatory surgery patients. Continued modernization of specimen and data processing in the Clinical Laboratory has had a significant impact in improving NYEE's ability to process patients for surgery quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality. In contrast to only a few years ago, patient delays due to unavailability of laboratory test data is virtually nonexistent. Educational programs for attending physicians have eliminated most unnecessary preoperative testing, saving both time in patient processing and costs, and thus benefitting everyone.
A Molecular Pathology Laboratory has recently been added to the battery of facilities in the Department. A full-time research technician is dedicated to genetic analysis of orbital lymphomas, ocular melanoma cell lines, and squamous cell cancers of the head and neck region.
The department has expanded its role as a provider of consultative services in areas not traditionally within the realm of laboratorians. We have informally established a consultative service for evaluation of immunologic and infectious ocular surface disease, which relies on the correlation of clinical and pathologic data gleaned from patient examination and laboratory investigations. Also, a fine needle aspiration biopsy service was established which allows the pathologist to examine the patient, perform the aspiration, and evaluate the cytologic material in one setting. This service has largely been used by the otolaryngologists to date, but our goal is to expand this further to serve more ophthalmology patients with orbital and intraocular disease. The goal of this program is to provide a comprehensive, consultative diagnostic service which will enhance the specialty care provider’s practice.
Read more about the Resident Training Program in Ophthalmology and Fellowship Opportunities in Ocular Pathology.
