Please spend $10K for me

[BlondeDocteur]

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My current research fellowship comes with a lovely $10K parting gift meant to be spent on any academic supplies besides a computer. It has to be used within the next 2 months, before I separate from from my current institution.

Firstly, how often do you refer to paper books in residency, versus online atlases or other e-resources? I don't want to waste it on costly books that will someday be used to stage apartments.

But if books are a good idea, which ones? Pollux suggested ASCP's Cytopathology Review Guide in another thread. I also read LADoc's book-buying spree thread but over half those were cytology and GYN in which I am distinctly uninterested.

(AP-only for me, but if anyone is reading who's dual, CP resources would be great).

 

[2021Doctor]

If you are really going to be a Pathologist in the long run then buy a lifetime membership to the CAP. Then buy Rosai's surgical pathology textbook and Weiss's Soft Tissue textbook.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Thanks. So you find that you really actually use the paper books?

 

[Substance]

Hi,

My name is Dr. Vakud Okwaebe and I have 1,00,0000,$ in abank account. I need 10000,$ to transfer money to america. we share half email [email protected] for details. tanks

 

[BlondeDocteur]

OK wait.. quick math... that's a 1000% return! Hot damn, you got a deal!

Edit: you're only giving me half? 500% return? I can go better than that with T notes and city bonds.

 

[turtle1966]

My current research fellowship comes with a lovely $10K parting gift meant to be spent on any academic supplies besides a computer. It has to be used within the next 2 months, before I separate from from my current institution.

Firstly, how often do you refer to paper books in residency, versus online atlases or other e-resources? I don't want to waste it on costly books that will someday be used to stage apartments.

But if books are a good idea, which ones? Pollux suggested ASCP's Cytopathology Review Guide in another thread. I also read LADoc's book-buying spree thread but over half those were cytology and GYN in which I am distinctly uninterested.

(AP-only for me, but if anyone is reading who's dual, CP resources would be great).

How about a nice double head microscope on eBay? Is that allowed? CAP membership, books etc. you will likely receive as an allowance from your residency, especially in Texas.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

I never thought of a microscope. Would it be useful at home? Can you take slides home to preview there?

 

[turtle1966]

I never thought of a microscope. Would it be useful at home? Can you take slides home to preview there?

Absolutely! It will change your life in terms of flexibility with your study and work. Pathologists are often known as a "microscope". It will serve as a nice scholarly piece of furniture as well.

On ebay, you can buy them in stages as well. Main choices are Chinese, Japanese and German scopes. I can not vouch for Chinese, which cost around 30% of Japanese.

I would recommend a front-back double header with a 2nd trinocular with photoport, at least 22mm ocular, at least plan-fluoride lenses. I would not buy photo or video setup yet. As an example, single head Olympus BX-40 with plan lenses can be had at around 2500. You will have an option of reselling later as well.

35 years ago Zeiss used to cost 10k, then came Nikon for 3k, with quality very close to Zeiss for everyday use. Chinese manufacturer are trying repeat the feat, however, I feel they are not there yet for microscopes suitable for pathologists.

Good lucks to you.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

Thank you so much for the recommendations!

 

[Poeppel]

"Would it be useful at home? Can you take slides home to preview there?" I think turtle was kidding you a bit.

I don't think you should take patient slides home - there are HIPAA issues with it, and other liability problems as well. I have asked about this at my program and was told to never take patient assets home. There is no liability insurance coverage at your personal residence if the slides are lost or damaged. Same goes for your car.

As it happens, I used to have a microscope of my own at home that I inherited. It was a nice one, minimal in features but probably still usable for clinical purposes. I ended up never using it and sold it to a microscope dealer for a couple hundred bucks.

If you're really set on a scope at home, I suppose one possibility would be to use it for de-identified study sets (ones that were recuts/duplicates from interesting cases). There are many stacks of such sets at most places.

 

[gbwillner]

Get the entire foundations of diagnostic pathology series. You will spend all your money on them soon enough anyway.

 

[Sulfinator]

Get the entire foundations of diagnostic pathology series. You will spend all your money on them soon enough anyway.

Absolutely! I used much of my book fund (and some of my own money) to by many of these. If I had tons of book money I would by every single one in the series.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

"Would it be useful at home? Can you take slides home to preview there?" I think turtle was kidding you a bit.

I don't think you should take patient slides home - there are HIPAA issues with it, and other liability problems as well. I have asked about this at my program and was told to never take patient assets home. There is no liability insurance coverage at your personal residence if the slides are lost or damaged. Same goes for your car.

As it happens, I used to have a microscope of my own at home that I inherited. It was a nice one, minimal in features but probably still usable for clinical purposes. I ended up never using it and sold it to a microscope dealer for a couple hundred bucks.

If you're really set on a scope at home, I suppose one possibility would be to use it for de-identified study sets (ones that were recuts/duplicates from interesting cases). There are many stacks of such sets at most places.

That's what I figured. It seemed risky to say the least. But idk, this is all a new world for me.

The foundations of diagnostic path series, eh?

 

[Pollux]

The microscope idea that was suggested sounds pretty awesome. I own a cheap microscope at home. I can't take patient slides home to preview, but I can take de-identified recut slides home to work on research projects. Beats staying after work or going into work on weekends just to get stuff done.

The ASCP Cytopathology Review Guide is a review question book, and will likely not be useful to you until at least after your cytopathology rotation or closer to your board exam. By the time you need it, they might already come out with a new edition, so I would recommend holding off on it for now.

I liked the Foundations Series when I was junior resident. I don't find them as useful now, and I don't see myself using them after residency. Nowadays I much prefer the Amirsys Diagnostic Pathology series. I like the series because it's in bullet point format (again, doesn't work for everybody) and it has at least 5 photomicrographs for each entity, while many entities have more than a dozen pictures (clinical photos, photomicrographs, stains). That is hard to beat for a pathology book. They also have online full text access for the books you bought, so you don't have to carry the physical books with you. The junior residents at my program also find the series useful for their level, because every entity has a "Key Facts" box that summarizes the relevant clinical findings and histologic findings that they can read in less than one minute. My favorite books in this series are GU, Head and Neck, and GYN.

I would recommend flipping through the books before you purchase them to make sure you like the format of the books. If you have friends in pathology at your current hospital, you can check out their resident library/collection first.

 

[turtle1966]

Books come with an expiration date, pages yellow, information becomes stale and famous authors fade away in our memory, however, a good microscope will outlast them. I remember help cleaning my library department. Unceremoniously, we tossed boxes and boxes of autographed excellent books going back to 1905. Most of books and series mentioned in this thread did no exist when I was young.

HIIPA? Can even an extremely well labeled slide be traced back to a specific patient? There are "tons" slides in transit in any given day; have you ever heard of a HIIPA compliant shipper? If I were a PD, I would not allow taking home of any current case slides either, it would be an administrative headache.

It used to be a common practice to keep recuts of interest cases. Have times changed? I have boxes of teaching and recut slides from classic cases and personal cases (like first autopsies, etc.). As you have heard "a slide is worth thousand words". At least when you are an attending, you could get recuts for yourself.

More importantly, a good scope can be exchanged for a TAX FREE money.

But again, like everything else, one has to weigh pros and cons make an informed decision.

 

[vistaril]

My current research fellowship comes with a lovely $10K parting gift meant to be spent on any academic supplies besides a computer. It has to be used within the next 2 months, before I separate from from my current institution.

Firstly, how often do you refer to paper books in residency, versus online atlases or other e-resources? I don't want to waste it on costly books that will someday be used to stage apartments.

But if books are a good idea, which ones? Pollux suggested ASCP's Cytopathology Review Guide in another thread. I also read LADoc's book-buying spree thread but over half those were cytology and GYN in which I am distinctly uninterested.

(AP-only for me, but if anyone is reading who's dual, CP resources would be great).

given how your financial prospects have shifted so radically lately(going from an upper level surg resident to starting as an intern in path), I'd recommend something that you could convert to hard cold cash fairly easily....I think someone mentioned a scope.

 

[Sulfinator]

That's what I figured. It seemed risky to say the least. But idk, this is all a new world for me.

The foundations of diagnostic path series, eh?

Oops! I meant the Amirsys Diagnostic Pathology Series. I am a big fan of these. They are expensive, though.

 

[turtle1966]

given how your financial prospects have shifted so radically lately(going from an upper level surg resident to starting as an intern in path), I'd recommend something that you could convert to hard cold cash fairly easily....I think someone mentioned a scope.

A couple other factors to consider:
1-Texas is generous with allowances for books, memberships, etc. They are pretty much a standard benefits of an Academia.
2-10k is a lot of money to spend in just two months and in books.

Just my humble two cents.

 

[pathstudent]

My first suggestion is to book a conference in a nice expensive location and use it for travel expenses etc for an educational vacation.

I wouldn't recommend a scope. A good new microscope costs 15k. And having one at home won't be all that useful.

The department will have all the books you need, but if that is all you can think of to do, I would get all the WHO books, the foundation series, Rosai, and DeMay, a big neuropathology and peds path text since that is your area of interest.

If you can get a lifetime membership at cap or ascp, that could save you a lot of money in the future.

Call abp and see if you can prepay for boards and recert boards years in advance.

 

[BrainPathology]

Good lord it's 2014.. get a kindle and put any books you want onto that (or don't if they consider that a computer.. just get the kindle app for your phones and computers and register them all). The AFIP series that someone will eventually convince you you have to have will take up enough space on your shelves (or if someone HAS already convinced you of that you can take a big chunk of that budget by getting all of Series 4 Tumor and Series 1 Non-Tumor that are out now). Most if not all of the foundations in diagnostic path are available on kindle editions and most if not all of those editions are cheaper than the hardcover. Histology for pathologists is also available; which is a good book to have especially if you're going to end up teaching. I have a few other books that are VERY niche-y so I imagine you'd be able to find whatever niche books you'd like to have also. (if they consider Kindle editions to somehow be a computer just buy the hardcover ones and return them for credit).

Also I would seriously consider spending 25% of that budget on specialties that you're profoundly uninterested in. If you're even on call some weekend with a rush case in an area you hate they are invaluable. That might still leave a lot of money left over.

I would doubt that the self important lords of bureaucracy at UCLA would consider a CAP membership to be academic supplies, though if you can fool them into thinking it was their idea somehow that would be a good thing to have (if you're not planning to return to Europe to practice).

 

[Sulfinator]

Good lord it's 2014.. get a kindle and put any books you want onto that . . .

There are starting to be more and more textbooks that also provide you with electronic access to their content. For pathology texts, I find that I would rather look at a real book than digital images on a screen (this is just my personal preference); though, with electronic access, I can always look things up on my iPad or anything with internet access when I'm in a pinch and don't want to have to go back to my office to pull a book off the shelf.

 

[gbwillner]

I have several texts for the Kindle/iPad and still found myself preferring the actual textbook as well. iPads are nothing more than glorified toys that have little practical use, IMHO. As long as the book has good organization you can find your entries just as quickly, but can flip through the book without specific queries much easier. And reading about complex topics on your tiny phone? Forget it.