Pathology

[InsulinJunkie93]

I am currently an undergrad and have been investigating different medical specialties. I came across pathology and it has interested me. I want to be a doctor that interacts with patients, but I also love the lab setting. I have a passion for learning, especially medicine, but I also want to have a great family life. I guess my questions are, what kind of pathologists interact most with patients? How much do they interact with patients? Do these types of pathologists have a pretty consistent schedule that would be good for raising a family?

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[Lumberjill]

I would suggest doing a search for lifestyles and subspecialties in the pathology section. You probably won't receive too many answers on this subject in the pre-allo section.

 

[Gut Shot]

I am currently an undergrad and have been investigating different medical specialties. I came across pathology and it has interested me. I want to be a doctor that interacts with patients, but I also love the lab setting. I have a passion for learning, especially medicine, but I also want to have a great family life. I guess my questions are, what kind of pathologists interact most with patients? How much do they interact with patients? Do these types of pathologists have a pretty consistent schedule that would be good for raising a family?

Transfusion medicine (blood bankers) has the most interaction, dealing with inpatients who have transfusion-related issues, and doing plasmapheresis if the hospital in question offers that service. I have seen some with awesome schedules (academic center with residents to take call) and others with atrocious schedules. The overall job market for this field sucks hard.

Cytopathology is another one, as you can interact with patients (briefly) during fine needle aspiration (FNA) procedures. Where you work dictates your schedule, with academic centers being somewhat less intense than private practice.

Last would be dermatopathology, which gives you the option to see patients in a clinic setting, examining skin lesions and doing biopsies. This is the most competitive and highly paid of the pathology subspecialties. I know two academic dermpaths who work ~50 hours/week, but the private practice ones I know work much more. They are essentially hooked on the money, and the number of cases they sign out correlates nicely with their bottom line. A few months ago CMS announced that 88305, the major billing code used in dermpath (and pathology in general), was having its reimbursement level cut by a third, so we'll see how that plays out.

Honestly, if you really want patient interaction you should look elsewhere.