D pathologists have any contact with patients?

[dreamadream]

I heard that being a pathologist is like the "goth" of the hospital. Will I ever be in the patients room?

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[jesebelle]

From my small amount of personal experience definitely not as much compared to a lot of other specialties but some. I was really interested in pathology so I shadowed a few and watched one do a bone marrow biopsy which the patient was awake and talking for. The anatomic pathologists do go into the OR for specimens though since the patient is out cold I'm not sure that that counts for much.

 

[allanMED15]

In the derm practice I work for, one of the dermato-pathologists sees patients while also working in the lab. I think she does that 2 days a week.

 

[Raryn]

Depends on the pathologist. The big examples are that pathologists can frequently do their own bone marrow biopsies, have been known to do FNA biopsies of a variety of sites (though this getting rarer), and can do a fellowship in "bloodbanking" where they run the hospital's pheresis machine (and have to see patients for that).

 

[Law2Doc]

Yeah the largest extent of contact seems to be in sampling procedures where they are in the room with the patient while they or the proceduralist are taking samples (fine needle or core biopsies). The patient is generally awake and communicative, and has lots of questions and concerns. The pathologist is on site with a microscope and specimen kits, ensuring that there's enough sample for a diagnosis. The key to the role seems to be to have a really good poker face, because the pathologist is going to know if the patient has cancer well before anyone else, and often well before s/he leaves the room.