Job market-Real shortage of pathologists?

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I find it interesting that medical students who likely need a 35+ year career upon graduating are applying to pathology and radiology in droves. The new GPT o1 is crazy and even if it means 1 attending can do the work of 5 compared to complete replacement, it’s still going to decimate the job market.

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I find it interesting that medical students who likely need a 35+ year career upon graduating are applying to pathology and radiology in droves. The new GPT o1 is crazy and even if it means 1 attending can do the work of 5 compared to complete replacement, it’s still going to decimate the job market.
Eh. If radiologists/pathologists are still on the hook legally for reads, it won't get to the point where "1 is doing the work of 5." At least in rads, workflow is already at extreme efficiency with dictation, macros, etc, that a machine overreading won't do much to speed things along if you have to look at the images yourself. Only existential threat would be if scans/path slides are taken away from human eyes entirely and I don't think that's feasible anytime soon, even for someone starting a career now.
 
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I think drinking water contamination on med school campuses might be the only explanation for this...
Not really. We don't know the proportion of IMGs as well as AMGs who are applying as a backup. Pathology has long been a choice of last resort for AMGs who are applying to competitive specialties but fear that they won't match to their preferred specialty. Also, I have noticed that a lot of DOs are filling the void left by AMGs not going into pathology.
 
I think drinking water contamination on med school campuses might be the only explanation for this...

Job market finally improved. Won't last forever but at the moment it is a very appealing speciality.
 
I hope people aren’t taking these low paid jobs out in LA still. Have respect for yourself and all your hard work. Don’t let people take advantage of you.



Surgical Pathologists​

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (USA). Los Angeles General Medical Center seeks four board-certified Surgical Pathologists with subspecialty expertise to join their Anatomic Pathology Division. Candidates with at least three years of sign-out experience or fellowship training in subspecialties such as Gastrointestinal, Gynecologic, Urologic, or Head & Neck Pathology are preferred. The hospital, located in the vibrant inner city of Los Angeles, has an annual surgical case volume of approximately 20,000. The Anatomic Pathology Service includes Gynecologic & Perinatal Pathology, General Surgical Pathology, Cytopathology, and Autopsy.

  • Qualifications:
  • Must have an MD, DO
  • Board-certified/board eligible in Pathology
  • Eligible for a California medical license or equivalent certification/permit as determined by the Medical Board of California
  • Clinical patient care to an underserved population

  • Overview:
  • Providing clinical diagnostic services, teaching residents and fellows through lectures and double-scoping, participating in administrative duties such as tumor board coverage, and contributing to quality improvement efforts.
  • The department features ACGME-accredited programs, including a Pathology Residency with 23 residents, a Surgical Pathology Fellowship with 6 fellows annually, a Cytopathology Fellowship with 4 fellows annually, and a Neuropathology Fellowship with 2 fellows annually.

  • Compensation:
  • Annual Pay Range: $207,253 – 277,843
Anatomic Pathology Instructor
2025 – 2026 (2 Positions)​




LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (USA). Applications are invited for Anatomic Pathology Instructor positions in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The successful candidates will join a subspecialized anatomic pathology division supporting the clinical and academic missions of an internationally recognized department. One year of prior fellowship training in surgical pathology or a surgical pathology subspecialty is preferred (senior residents with outstanding record of excellent diagnostic skills will also be considered). Eligibility for California licensure and for appointment to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Staff is required.

Positions are one year in duration (consideration may be given to a second year), with independent sign-out as a full time faculty after initial brief period of supervision and proctoring, coupled with active role in resident education on a daily basis, responsibilities in an active intraoperative consultation service (Frozen Sections) and tumor board coverage, with availability of protected time on a weekly basis for preparation for educational responsibilities/ other duties as applicable.

 
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I hope people aren’t taking these low paid jobs out in LA still. Have respect for yourself and all your hard work.



Surgical Pathologists​

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (USA). Los Angeles General Medical Center seeks four board-certified Surgical Pathologists with subspecialty expertise to join their Anatomic Pathology Division. Candidates with at least three years of sign-out experience or fellowship training in subspecialties such as Gastrointestinal, Gynecologic, Urologic, or Head & Neck Pathology are preferred. The hospital, located in the vibrant inner city of Los Angeles, has an annual surgical case volume of approximately 20,000. The Anatomic Pathology Service includes Gynecologic & Perinatal Pathology, General Surgical Pathology, Cytopathology, and Autopsy.

  • Qualifications:
  • Must have an MD, DO
  • Board-certified/board eligible in Pathology
  • Eligible for a California medical license or equivalent certification/permit as determined by the Medical Board of California
  • Clinical patient care to an underserved population

  • Overview:
  • Providing clinical diagnostic services, teaching residents and fellows through lectures and double-scoping, participating in administrative duties such as tumor board coverage, and contributing to quality improvement efforts.
  • The department features ACGME-accredited programs, including a Pathology Residency with 23 residents, a Surgical Pathology Fellowship with 6 fellows annually, a Cytopathology Fellowship with 4 fellows annually, and a Neuropathology Fellowship with 2 fellows annually.

  • Compensation:
  • Annual Pay Range: $207,253 – 277,843
Anatomic Pathology Instructor
2025 – 2026 (2 Positions)​




LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (USA). Applications are invited for Anatomic Pathology Instructor positions in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The successful candidates will join a subspecialized anatomic pathology division supporting the clinical and academic missions of an internationally recognized department. One year of prior fellowship training in surgical pathology or a surgical pathology subspecialty is preferred (senior residents with outstanding record of excellent diagnostic skills will also be considered). Eligibility for California licensure and for appointment to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Staff is required.

Positions are one year in duration (consideration may be given to a second year), with independent sign-out as a full time faculty after initial brief period of supervision and proctoring, coupled with active role in resident education on a daily basis, responsibilities in an active intraoperative consultation service (Frozen Sections) and tumor board coverage, with availability of protected time on a weekly basis for preparation for educational responsibilities/ other duties as applicable.

This is essentially California state’s equivalent of a VA job.
 
Shocking. Significantly less than the very “low-ball” offer ( in equivalent $) than I was offered in the 80’s to start.
 
Less applicants to radiology and pathology…

IMG_5005.jpeg
 
The rad-onc folks seem to have done something to clean up their mess.
 
For pathology this was primarily due to a significant decrease in IMG applicants.



The value that I don't know, but perhaps someone does, is what percent of applicants are applying to pathology as a fallback option. I think it has been long understood that pathology is a failsafe against not matching for a more competitive speciality - which practically is everything else.
 
If you believe the NRMP pathology data (which has data on most pathology applicants but not all), for US MDs, almost all only rank pathology alone. For US DOs, those who match, almost all only rank pathology but those who go unmatched, a sizable portion up to 30% have multiple specialties (small sample size). For US IMG and non-US IMG, it appears that is around 10-20% or so. So overall, not too high for US MD, some DOs, but decently high for IMGs.

Match Data - Charting Outcomes in the Match
 
Desperate folks will ALWAYS try to get into ANY residency they can get into. And that typically includes the low hanging fruit of pathology, F.P., peds. Regardless of interest, they need a job. This is not complex.
 
It doesn't matter. Every residency spot will be filled regardless. The total # of applicants doesn't have any impact on the job market. It's the # of residency spots, which = graduates.
 
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