Montreal - Diagnostic and Molecular Pathology

McGill UniversityMontreal, QuebecRegular stream

Program websiteWebsite1 more link

Open on carms.ca

CaRMS program description, 2026 match, last approved 22 Sep 2025

From the 2026 match (R-1 2026). See the 2027 version

Positions (approx. quota): 2 positions
Length: 5 years
Stream: Regular
Discipline: Diagnostic and Molecular Pathology
Applications per year: 51–200
Applicants offered interviews: 26–50%
Accreditation: Accredited
CaRMS program ID: 30305

Bands are 5-year averages the program reports to CaRMS. They describe past cycles, not your odds.

Summary

McGill University's Diagnostic and Molecular Pathology residency program offers an innovative, comprehensive training experience in pathology. The program focuses on developing competent pathologists through a structured curriculum that emphasizes early immersion, exam preparation, and personalized career planning.

Training

Research

Residents may spend up to 6 periods in research, with a requirement to complete a scholarly project resulting in publication or national presentation.

Training setting

Urban academic medical centers in Montreal, including multiple teaching hospitals serving a diverse, multicultural community.

Teaching approach

Competency-Based Medical Education with a focus on progressive independence, tailored learning plans, and comprehensive skill development across pathology subspecialties.

Setting types

Academic medical center
Teaching hospitals
Forensic laboratory

Focus areas

Surgical Pathology
Cytology
Autopsy Pathology
Molecular Pathology
Pediatric Pathology
Neuropathology
Forensic Pathology

Patient populations

Adult surgical patients
Pediatric patients
Forensic cases
Coroner and medical autopsy cases

Highlights

Competency by Design curriculum
Early frozen section exposure
Research project requirement
Annual scientific lecture series
Distinguished invited speakers
Finlayson annual resident research day
Funding for conference attendance
French and English language training

Strengths

Innovative AP curriculum
Strong research infrastructure
Comprehensive case exposure
Structured Royal College exam preparation
Emphasis on molecular and digital pathology
Multicultural training environment

Enhanced skills

Lab management
Quality assurance/Quality control
Molecular testing principles

By year

PGY-1

Foundation of Pathology PracticeMultiple sites12 rotation periods
Transition to PathologyMultiple sites2 months

From the program's rotation list.

Selection

What the program looks at

Academic achievements
Research contributions
Personal statement
Letters of recommendation
Interview performance
Demonstrated interest in pathology

Applications per year

51–200

Applicants offered interviews

26–50%

Interviews

Dates (2026 match): 21 and 22 Jan 2026

Programs can change interview dates. Confirm on carms.ca.

Pay

Provincial scale, last updated 23 Jul 2026 · check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Annual salary by PGY level, Quebec
Level	Annual salary
PGY-1	$58,728 / year
PGY-2	$64,809 / year
PGY-3	$70,890 / year
PGY-4	$76,969 / year
PGY-5	$83,050 / year

One provincial scale for Quebec, set by the resident agreement, so every program there pays the same. Showing the 5 levels this program covers.

Benefits

Benefits as listed by CaRMS in 2022–2024; check the current agreement(opens in a new tab)

Adoption leave: 29 to 38 weeks55 to 75 % of salary
Annual vacation: 20 days/year
Assistant Resident Coordinator: $425/month
Call Premium: $607/28 days
Conference leave: 7 days pd/year
Dental Plan: Yes, available for a fee
Exam leave: Day (s) of the exam
Extended Health Insurance: Yes
Leave for death in family: From 1 to 5 days depending on the family member
Leave of absence without pay (exceptional measure): 12 months maximum
Life insurance: Yes
Long-Term disability insurance: Yes
Maternity leaveProvincial Program (RQAP*) and FMRQ **: 21 weeks95 % of salary
Meals: Reduced feeFree during on-call duty
Pager: Provided by the establishment
Parental leave (time sharing between parents): 19 to 29 weeks55 to 75 % of salary
Parking: ½ of doctors’ feeFree during on-call duty
Paternity leaveProvincial Program (RQAP) and FMRQ: 1 week, 100% of salary3 to 5 weeks, 100% of salary(two options)
Professional Liability Insurance****(CPMA not applicable): Yes (free)
Quebec Health Insurance Program / RAMQ***: Yes
Resident Coordinator: $583/month
Resuscitation courses and examination leave: Day of the course and of the exam, course paid
Sick leave: 9.6 days pd / yearAnd reimbursement of days not taken
Statutory and floating holidays: 13/year
Study leave: 10 days pd/year
Superior Financial Programs: Yes
Teaching Premium: $240/28 days
Wedding leave: 7 days paid + 7 days without pay

Call

Call (provincial max): 6 calls in an establishment per 28 days

The union agreement’s cap for all residents in the province; your program’s actual call schedule may be lighter. Check with the program.

FMRQ agreement, 1 Apr 2021 to 31 Mar 2028.

Teaching sites

MUHC-GLEN site (Royal Victoria Hospital)
Montreal General Hospital
Montreal Children's Hospital
Jewish General Hospital
St. Mary's Hospital
Montreal Neurological Hospital
Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médicine légale

Hospital facts

Public figures for hospitals named above, each with its source and reference period. They describe the hospital, not the program, and are not a ranking. We match names to the province’s lists by name, so check each source before you rely on it.

Montreal General Hospital

Matched to Hôpital Général de Montréal (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 14,039 · 2026–2027: 14,682 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 236 · psychiatry 46 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Montreal Children's Hospital

Matched to L'Hôpital de Montréal pour Enfants (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 25,738 · 2026–2027: 26,552 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.

Jewish General Hospital

Matched to Hôpital Général Juif (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 37,934 · 2026–2027: 39,472 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 516 · psychiatry 52 · geriatrics 28 · neonatology 34 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Show facts for 2 more sites

St. Mary's Hospital

Matched to Centre Hospitalier de St. Mary (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Emergency visits: 2025–2026: 13,990 · 2026–2027: 14,053 Cumulative from 1 April to the end of period 5 of 13 (about 20 weeks) of each fiscal year. Not a yearly total: compare only the same period.
Licensed beds: physical health 224 · psychiatry 29 · geriatrics 24 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Montreal Neurological Hospital

Matched to Hôpital Neurologique de Montréal (Montréal) in the province’s hospital list.

Licensed beds: physical health 90 Capacity on the facility’s permit (au permis), by bed type, as of the 1 Oct 2026 extraction. Not staffed or open beds, and not added up across bed types.

Sources and licences

Contient de l'information fournie par le ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec et visée par CC BY 4.0. Données modifiées. (Contains information provided by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec under CC BY 4.0. Data modified.)

Unfilled positions in past years

No repeated vacancies in CaRMS’s lists of open positions, 2019–2026.

Positions at this site, all streams.

Quebec: different match process, not directly comparable.

A position can go unfilled because of where the site is, because it is open to IMGs only or to another restricted stream, or because the quota changed late. It says nothing about the quality of the training. Verify with the CaRMS lists. Source: CaRMS’s lists of positions open after round 1 and after round 2, as read in October 2026 (latest: 2026 round 1 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab), 2026 round 2 (CaRMS PDF, opens in a new tab)). A site’s numbers are shown when it had positions open after round 1 in at least 2 of 8 years or at least 3 in one year.

Contacts

Contacts weren't collected for the 2026 match.

The current program director and contacts are on the 2027 version of this program and on the CaRMS program page(opens in a new tab).

Location

Montreal, Quebec

About the city

Public statistics for the place named by this program’s location label, each with its source and reference period. They describe the place, not the program, and are not a ranking. Check each source before you rely on it.

Climate

Canadian Climate Normals, 1991–2020. Each value comes from the nearest weather station that reports it, not from the city itself.

January average: −9.2 °C Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away
July average: 21.7 °C Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away
Snowfall: 216.6 cm a year Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away
Days below −20 °C: 12.0 days a year Montreal Trudeau (Airport), 11.2 km away

People

2021 Census. Figures are for the municipality of Montréal, not the metropolitan area. Statistics Canada rounds counts, so small places are approximate.

Population: 1,762,949 people up 3.4% from 2016
Official languages: English only 11.9% · French only 27.2% · English and French 58.5% · neither 2.4% Share of residents who can conduct a conversation in each. This is not the language spoken at home.
Immigrants: 33.4% of residents arrived 2016–2021: 6.0% · non-permanent residents: 7.5%
Indigenous identity: 0.9% of residents
How people commute: car, truck or van 56.7% · public transit 28.4% · walking or cycling 13.0% · other 1.9% Average commute: 28.4 minutes. Shares are of people who commute.The way Canadians commute was altered in 2021 by the pandemic, with lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19 and changes in how and where Canadians worked leading to 2.8 million fewer commuters, compared with five years earlier. Statistics Canada, The Daily, 30 Nov 2022(opens in a new tab)
Median household income: $63,600 before tax $56,000 after tax · income year 2020, in 2020 dollars

Rural and remote

This describes the place named by the program’s location label. Programs can train in several towns, so it is not every site.

Population centre: Montréal, a large urban population centre (100,000 or more people) 3,675,219 people in 2021
Remoteness index: 0.030 0 is least remote, 1 is most remote. Statistics Canada calls this index experimental.

Housing, cost and work

Each figure names the area it covers. A missing line means the source publishes nothing for this area.

Rental vacancy rate: 2.9% October 2025 survey, Montréal, Quebec (census metropolitan area). The share of purpose-built rentals (three units and over) vacant, not a rent.
Basic cost of living: $50,287 a year Market Basket Measure 2025, Montréal, Québec, for two adults with two children. A modest, basic basket (the poverty line), not a resident’s budget. A size-class region is not the town itself.
Unemployment rate: 6.8% September 2026, three-month average, seasonally adjusted, Montréal, Quebec (census metropolitan area); standard error 0.4 points. A survey estimate.

Job outlook

Employment and Social Development Canada’s rating for the occupation in the economic region. It is not a count of jobs, and says nothing about CaRMS positions or your match.

Outlook, 2025–2027: Good The employment outlook will be Good for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (NOC 31100) in the census metropolitan area of Montréal for the 2025-2027 period.
Canada-wide, to 2033: Strong risk of Shortage ESDC’s projection for specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine, 2024–2033. Recent conditions, 2021–2023: Strong signs of Shortage.