Pathology Academic Resource Center

ABOUT PARC

Welcome to the website of the Pathology Resource Center also known as PARC. Our office is located in room 466 L. PARC was developed as a support unit for the extensive teaching responsibilities that the Department of Pathology has in the various schools here at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). This includes a wide variety of courses in Pathology in the UTHSCSA Schools of Medicine, Dentistry and Allied Health Sciences, and in the College of Pharmacy at UT Austin. We also provide extensive support in our Pathology Residency and Fellowship teaching programs. The responsibilities of PARC include the overseeing and preparation of lecture/lab schedules, course syllabi, assisting in kodachrome and PowerPoint preparation, examinations and proctoring, and in coordinating pathology laboratory teaching sessions. PARC has a library of over 34,000 kodachrome slides of gross & microscopic autopsy and surgical pathology specimens that have been and currently are being acquired by faculty and residents in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Divisions at University Hospital and the Audie Murphy Veterans Hospital. In addition PARC is continuing to increases its gross organ teaching specimens currently in excess of 659 plastinated (see the NOTE below), wet and mounted organs. Dr. Neal Pinckard and Ms. Belen Ballesteros oversee this invaluable teaching resource.

NOTE: Plastination is the process that preserves biological materials by removing the natural moisture content of the tissues and replacing it with a curable polymer such as silicone latex rubber, epoxy or polyester. Plastination was developed Dr. Gunther von Hagens of the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Heidelberg, West Germany. It was brought to the UTHSC in 1980 by Dr. Townsend, Chairman of the Pathology Department at the time. Our department was the first in the United States to use the plastination process for preparing gross organ specimens to use in teaching. Mr. Douglas Krauskopf (retired) engineered this process of plastination and developed this resource in our department.

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