Do I have to go to medical school to be a pathologist? PhD or MS?

[jungjh9001]

Do I have to go to medical school and get MD to become a pathologist?
(like molecular or clinical pathologist..)
I saw graduate programs that offer PhD or MS in pathology..
How is job market for molecular or clinical pathologist?
Also, if it is possible to become a pathologist without MD,
what would be the salary range? (with just MS or PhD)
I have been searching for the answers to these questions for a while
and I can't find the answers...

Thank you all for the help! 🙂

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[crmellon]

They're two different things in some sense. A Pathologist in the MD/DO sense is someone who diagnoses pathologies in patients, or it can be academic.

I believe that a PhD is pathology is the scientific pursuit of understanding pathological mechanisms, and developments. Not diagnoses in a clinical sense.

 

[link2swim06]

Do I have to go to medical school and get MD to become a pathologist?
(like molecular or clinical pathologist..)
I saw graduate programs that offer PhD or MS in pathology..
How is job market for molecular or clinical pathologist?
Also, if it is possible to become a pathologist without MD,
what would be the salary range? (with just MS or PhD)
I have been searching for the answers to these questions for a while
and I can't find the answers...

Thank you all for the help! 🙂

Job market isnt so hot for clinical pathologists right now compared to the rest of medicine. Check the pathology residency sub-forum for more info. A pathologist is an MD or DO...however you can work in a pathology lab with a masters degree...you just will not be a "pathologist".

FYI if you get a PhD you will not be doing research on "pathology in general"...rather in whatever specialized field you end up in...in other words you will be a "cancer researcher" or "heart disease researcher", etc.

In short if you want to be able to do autopsy or read tissues/biopsy of patients you will need a medical degree (clinical pathologist). If you want to do research then get a PhD.

 

[AnthroMD]

Do I have to go to medical school and get MD to become a pathologist?
(like molecular or clinical pathologist..)
I saw graduate programs that offer PhD or MS in pathology..
How is job market for molecular or clinical pathologist?
Also, if it is possible to become a pathologist without MD,
what would be the salary range? (with just MS or PhD)
I have been searching for the answers to these questions for a while
and I can't find the answers...

Thank you all for the help! 🙂

Like the posters above me have stated, they are two separate things. As a PhD, you won't be able to autopsy/diagnosis (MD/DO required) but you will be able to read tissues/biopsies in the context of the specific research you are conducting. You certainly wouldn't be the one procuring the biopsies.

 

[Brachyury]

Do I have to go to medical school and get MD to become a pathologist?
(like molecular or clinical pathologist..)
I saw graduate programs that offer PhD or MS in pathology..
How is job market for molecular or clinical pathologist?
Also, if it is possible to become a pathologist without MD,
what would be the salary range? (with just MS or PhD)
I have been searching for the answers to these questions for a while
and I can't find the answers...

Thank you all for the help! 🙂

With a Ph.D., you can do a fellowship in clinical chemistry. The cytogeneticists who read FISH on all of our bone marrow biopsies are Ph.D.s, not MDs

 

[maybemed2013]

Pathology Assistant Program I believe at Duke.