Suggestions for a newbie

[Cica]

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Hey

I changed specialities from Internal Med. after two years and started in Pathology roughly 3 months ago. I am the only resident in the small department that I work (small dept. in Norway). I am currently doing several different things at the same time: grossing, autopsies (need 200 currently to specialise), thyroid FNAC, frozen sections and want to start some other microscopy stuff too. (Mentioning all this to give some background).

Now, it was a while ago that I was in med school and hence, I am wondering what is the best way to re-learn histology fast.I do remember alot of the histology but not everything. Also, I feel since I am doing alot of different things at the same time, I feel a bit overwhelmed with regards to keeping up and the reading and all. At the end of the day I wonder what I should read and so forth - feel its too much to read everything everyday. Any suggestions? Another thing is that cause I am a newbie, I take so long to look at slides and describe things - sometimes I do not even know what to look for and so forth. I just want to be better at it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[deleted314957]

Hey

I changed specialities from Internal Med. after two years and started in Pathology roughly 3 months ago. I am the only resident in the small department that I work (small dept. in Norway). I am currently doing several different things at the same time: grossing, autopsies (need 200 currently to specialise), thyroid FNAC, frozen sections and want to start some other microscopy stuff too. (Mentioning all this to give some background).

Now, it was a while ago that I was in med school and hence, I am wondering what is the best way to re-learn histology fast.I do remember alot of the histology but not everything. Also, I feel since I am doing alot of different things at the same time, I feel a bit overwhelmed with regards to keeping up and the reading and all. At the end of the day I wonder what I should read and so forth - feel its too much to read everything everyday. Any suggestions? Another thing is that cause I am a newbie, I take so long to look at slides and describe things - sometimes I do not even know what to look for and so forth. I just want to be better at it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

this won't be a big comfort but forget the "basic" histo books. you need the most recent "histology for pathologists". sorry i don't remember author but google it. the other books are for med students. then you need to find some path related web sites that have LOTS of slide images and compare/ contrast with the text, etc. the only remedy is "tincture of time" ( an old "chestnut" that carries over from my brief stint as a GP, and it "cured a hell of alot of stuff)) and LOTS of eyeball time. some folks have a "good" eye and some don't. doesn't mean you can't cut it in path but some get "it" faster than others. in 6 months to a year you will know where you fit

 

[KCShaw]

Yeah, patience. Most people I think are a little overwhelmed at times, especially early in the first year. "Histology for Pathologists" is still pretty good for putting names on things, but mainly applies to normal. I still think "Differential Diagnosis in Surgical Pathology" is pretty good for the foundations of thinking about pathologic lesions and some of the decision trees when trying to categorize something you don't recognize. But they're both books mainly used for reference, rather than to read through..not that you couldn't.

I think there's 2 main methods, which can be mixed, for reading/studying for pathology. "A" is to pick a few things every day from the cases you actually see and go read specifically about them. "B" is to pick one of the big 2 volume surg path texts (Rosai, Sternberg, Silverberg, etc.) and go through it chapter by chapter, without depending on your daily cases to direct the reading. It seems to me that most people plan to do "B" with a smattering of "A", but end up doing only "A" because they run out of time to do "B" the way they planned. That's pretty much what happened to me, anyway, though when I was studying for boards at the end I did more chapter-by-chapter/system-by-system reading -- as review rather than as primary study. YMMV. Those that do a lot of subspecialty signout probably default more to "B" since it also fits their daily cases.

 

[KluverB]

Having gone through a somewhat workload heavy program, I can't say I found much time to read anything during my first 2 years of anatomic pathology. In the end, I used books with lots of pictures, for picture-matching, and skimmed the text for anything useful. Personally, I prefer point form (Essentials of Anatomic Path, etc.) to prose (Rosai, etc.).
That being said, what I'd recommend to a n00b these days with your rotations (in no particular order):

• Molavi's "The Practice of Surgical Pathology"
• Collin's "An Introduction to Autopsy"
• Lester's "Manual of Surgical Pathology"
• "Quick Reference Handbook for Surgical Pathologists"
• Cibas' "Cytology" or the Foundations in Diagnostic Pathology FNAC book
• Most of the other Foundations books OR Sternberg/Rosai, depending on what floats your boat
• The Bethesda cervical path book (there is also one for the new thyroid grading, but we don't use it here, and I'm not sure it's used in Norway)
• pathologyoutlines.com
• ihcfaq.com

For (normal) histology, skim through whatever book you used in med school. I wouldn't spend too much time on re-learning histo. That you'll definitely pick up along the way.

 

[Cica]

Having gone through a somewhat workload heavy program, I can't say I found much time to read anything during my first 2 years of anatomic pathology. In the end, I used books with lots of pictures, for picture-matching, and skimmed the text for anything useful. Personally, I prefer point form (Essentials of Anatomic Path, etc.) to prose (Rosai, etc.).
That being said, what I'd recommend to a n00b these days with your rotations (in no particular order):

• Molavi's "The Practice of Surgical Pathology"
• Collin's "An Introduction to Autopsy"
• Lester's "Manual of Surgical Pathology"
• "Quick Reference Handbook for Surgical Pathologists"
• Cibas' "Cytology" or the Foundations in Diagnostic Pathology FNAC book
• Most of the other Foundations books OR Sternberg/Rosai, depending on what floats your boat
• The Bethesda cervical path book (there is also one for the new thyroid grading, but we don't use it here, and I'm not sure it's used in Norway)
• pathologyoutlines.com
• ihcfaq.com

For (normal) histology, skim through whatever book you used in med school. I wouldn't spend too much time on re-learning histo. That you'll definitely pick up along the way.

Hey

Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering what did you mean by 'most of the other foundation books'?? I also prefer to the point books and with lots of pictures,

 

[mlw03]

I think the one I highlighted is the single best book for a fourth year med student or first year path resident to have in their library. It's nowhere near enough, but the writing style is truly intended for someone at that level; others really are not. Out of the big surg path tomes, I think Sternberg is much easier to read than Rosai.

Having gone through a somewhat workload heavy program, I can't say I found much time to read anything during my first 2 years of anatomic pathology. In the end, I used books with lots of pictures, for picture-matching, and skimmed the text for anything useful. Personally, I prefer point form (Essentials of Anatomic Path, etc.) to prose (Rosai, etc.).
That being said, what I'd recommend to a n00b these days with your rotations (in no particular order):

• Molavi's "The Practice of Surgical Pathology"
• Collin's "An Introduction to Autopsy"
• Lester's "Manual of Surgical Pathology"
• "Quick Reference Handbook for Surgical Pathologists"
• Cibas' "Cytology" or the Foundations in Diagnostic Pathology FNAC book
• Most of the other Foundations books OR Sternberg/Rosai, depending on what floats your boat
• The Bethesda cervical path book (there is also one for the new thyroid grading, but we don't use it here, and I'm not sure it's used in Norway)
• pathologyoutlines.com
• ihcfaq.com

For (normal) histology, skim through whatever book you used in med school. I wouldn't spend too much time on re-learning histo. That you'll definitely pick up along the way.

 

[KluverB]

Hey

Thanks for the reply. I was just wondering what did you mean by 'most of the other foundation books'?? I also prefer to the point books and with lots of pictures,

There is a series of books called "Foundations in Diagnostic Pathology", with a book for each of the various systems, ie. GI, Breast, Derm, etc. Just google or look them up on amazon. They're good intro's to the more common entities. They have both a point form summary as well as written text for each entity with pretty descent pictures. The text is somewhat redundant as it basically repeats more or less what's been summed up in point form, so there is probably some wasted space there. If you're looking for something really point form dense, there is "Essential In Anatomic Pathology" (now in it's 3rd ed) as well as "Differential diagnosis in surgical pathology". Both also have a good number of pictures in them.

You can also consider the Amirsys series (Amirsys.com). Again, point form, lots of pictures; but not really for a beginner. On the other hand, they are quite comprehensive, but also much more expensive then the other series.

Finally, not in point-form, but with lots of pictures (at least some of the books), are the "Biopsy Interpretation" series of books, though some are now getting a bit dated. There is even one for FS, though I didn't find it useful enough to buy.