Pathologist or Dermatologist?
Who can become good Dermatopathologist?
- Thread starter alaska82
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Both can be good. You dont have to be a pathologist or dermatologist to be a good dermatopathologist. Philip Leboit is a pathologist and is one of the best in the business.
In order to be a good dermpath, you need to see lots of dermpath and be able to correlate with clinical info. If you can do this it doesn't matter what background you come from. There are always strong opinions on which is "better" but it really doesn't matter if the slide reader is competent.
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After I took the dermpath boards, it was quite clear to me that the derm trained test takers were much more apprehensive about the slide section of the test than the path trained people FWIW
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I think derm-trained people are great at the clin-path correlation aspect of dermpath, but they suffer a fair amount when it comes to IHC work-up of complicated cases since they basically only learn IHC during their dermpath year. On the other hand, as a path-trained dermpather, I struggle a bit with the complicated inflammatory cases, but the tumor stuff I feel very comfortable with. So it's a mixed bag, but each has their strengths. I will say that derm trains using a fair amount of dermpath during the whole residency whereas dermpath training in path residency can be hit or miss depending on where you go. My $.02.
