Early training in histopathology

Early training in histopathology has always been one of the most closely supervised areas of postgraduate medical education. In the past, most departments had one or two senior house officers. This made training labour intensive for trainers, and there was a risk of isolation and lack of peer support for trainees. Recent developments in early training have retained the emphasis on apprenticeship but, by concentrating early training in a smaller number of departments, have attempted to take advantage of economies of scale. Larger groups of trainees also alleviate some of the problems of isolation and lack of peer support. Early training was rather unstructured in the past. The development of a curriculum will improve this and provide trainees with a tool for monitoring their progress. A curriculum also provides objectives that can be used in the development of a robust assessment in the first year as part of run-through training.