Colorblind pathologist?

[nancysinatra]

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Hello, I'm visiting from the psych forum. I have a burning question for all you pathologists.

My dad's a pathologist. He is colorblind. Sadly I inherited some degree of this myself (as a female no less). Histo lab was hard for me in med school! So how is it my dad could do path as his specialty? I asked him once and he just said it was no problem. (Alas he is a pathologist for a reason, I suspect. Conversation's not his forte!) But he's way more colorblind than I am! When I was a kid he used to have to ask me if his socks were blue or brown.

Does anyone know of other colorblind pathologists? I just can't think of one other field in medicine where you'd think this would be a bigger problem!

 

[Enkidu]

Hello, I'm visiting from the psych forum. I have a burning question for all you pathologists.

My dad's a pathologist. He is colorblind. Sadly I inherited some degree of this myself (as a female no less). Histo lab was hard for me in med school! So how is it my dad could do path as his specialty? I asked him once and he just said it was no problem. (Alas he is a pathologist for a reason, I suspect. Conversation's not his forte!) But he's way more colorblind than I am! When I was a kid he used to have to ask me if his socks were blue or brown.

Does anyone know of other colorblind pathologists? I just can't think of one other field in medicine where you'd think this would be a bigger problem!

Even if he's colorblind, he can probably tell pink from blue - right? Browns are important too.

 

[LaBelleVN]

Hello, I'm visiting from the psych forum. I have a burning question for all you pathologists.

My dad's a pathologist. He is colorblind. Sadly I inherited some degree of this myself (as a female no less). Histo lab was hard for me in med school! So how is it my dad could do path as his specialty? I asked him once and he just said it was no problem. (Alas he is a pathologist for a reason, I suspect. Conversation's not his forte!) But he's way more colorblind than I am! When I was a kid he used to have to ask me if his socks were blue or brown.

Does anyone know of other colorblind pathologists? I just can't think of one other field in medicine where you'd think this would be a bigger problem!

All was well until you mentioned our supposed and stereotyped social ineptitude. Tsk tsk. You should know better to say something like that! Anyhow, I knew an attending who was colorblind. He stated that he saw the colors in various shades and hues of gray, light vs dark. It has worked well for him for the past 35 years.

 

[Entgegen]

In the not too distant past, all the pathology textbooks' pictures were in black and white. If you could learn pathology from those, I'm sure you'd have minimal difficulty practicing with only a mild limitation in perceiving colors.

 

[nancysinatra]

All was well until you mentioned our supposed and stereotyped social ineptitude. Tsk tsk. You should know better to say something like that!

Hee hee, I know, although I meant no offense! However this might be my only ever post in the path forum, and I didn't want to miss out on my chance. ;-) Plus it's my dad so I feel entitled to speak freely. Believe me, the personalities in path can't possibly be worse than they are in psych. We have some serious weirdos in this field.

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"Anyhow, I knew an attending who was colorblind. He stated that he saw the colors in various shades and hues of gray, light vs dark. It has worked well for him for the past 35 years.[/COLOR]

That's interesting about the grays! (That did not work for me in histo lab, though.)

 

[nancysinatra]

In the not too distant past, all the pathology textbooks' pictures were in black and white. If you could learn pathology from those, I'm sure you'd have minimal difficulty practicing with only a mild limitation in perceiving colors.

(Bold added)

That might actually be when my dad was in residency. It's been awhile.

 

[nancysinatra]

Even if he's colorblind, he can probably tell pink from blue - right?

I actually have no idea. But since I have never seen him sporting anything pink, whereas he is known to wear blue, I will presume so!

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

I dont know any other color-blind pathologists but I know many that are fashion-blind. What is the deal with all the pathologists wearing bow-ties? That is a terrible look. Its hard to tell a pathology meeting from a clown meeting anymore. Next time you attend a meeting, count the number of people in a bow-ties. Its sad.

 

[Torsed]

I knew a color blind dermatopathologist, he retired after 55 years of practice. I don't think it matters.

 

[KCShaw]

One of my attendings early in residency had some degree of color blindness. We never discussed it in detail, but it did come up once or twice. I vaguely recall our amazement and his nonchalance about the whole thing -- I think it's like anything else in life, you learn and adjust and when it's always been a part of you it's hard to explain it to anyone else. He was reputable and successful, and it didn't appear to hamper his abilities. I think it may be somewhat more of an issue that it used to be, but still many diagnoses revolve around pattern recognition more than distinguishing pink from red from blue, etc. It would also be important to be able to read a typical IHC and the common special stains. Residency might be a little harder though, since not only are you learning a tremendous amount from scratch but you're not seeing exactly what everyone else is seeing and you have to figure out if that's because of colorblindness or something else.

 

[2121115]

I am color blind, and I have no trouble. So is one of my partners.

 

[pathdoc68]

I know several colorblind pathologists, usually no problem at all. One has difficulty with our AFB stain (red/blue issues.)

 

[nancysinatra]

Thanks everyone! Interesting to learn...

I seem to recall meeting a psychiatrist once with a bad stutter. Now that would make life hard, but not impossible.

 

[KCShaw]

I've met some funny looking cross-eyed stuttering psychiatrists - well, at least one. But didn't know them well enough to decide if it helped, hurt, or had no real effect on their practice/patients on the whole. Probably didn't help with the angry paranoid ex-military schizophrenics and sociopaths, but might have eased relationships with the quiet, depressed, easily intimidated anxious patients. Who knows? Either way, everyone has to learn to make the most of who they are, and it seems to me a little willingness and persistence goes a long way towards self-confidence, which in turn goes a long way towards success. Even if you end up wearing clashing colors from time to time.