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Clinical pathology
Clinical pathology is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the laboratory analysis of bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, and tissue homogenates or extracts using the tools of chemistry, microbiology, hematology and molecular pathology. This specialty requires a medical residency.
Clinical pathologists often direct all of the special divisions of the laboratory, which may include the blood bank, clinical chemistry and biology, toxicology, hematology, immunology and serology, and microbiology. Clinical pathology also involves maintenance of laboratory information systems, research, and quality control.
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, “The practice of pathology is most often conducted in community hospitals or in academic medical centers, where patient care, diagnostic services, and research go hand in hand. Creation of new knowledge is the lifeblood of pathology and many academic pathologists devote significant time in their career to research.”
The world’s largest professional membership organization for clinical pathologists and laboratory professionals, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), says, “Pathologists are problem-solvers, fascinated by the process of disease and eager to unlock medical mysteries, like AIDS and diabetes, using the tools of laboratory medicine and its sophisticated instruments and methods. Pathologists make it possible to apply scientific advances to improve the accuracy and efficiency of medical diagnosis and treatment.”
Becoming a pathologist entails one of the lengthiest education and training tracks of all physicians. Requirements include four years of undergraduate study, plus four years of medical school, plus a minimum of four to five years of post-graduate training in pathology residency. The annual salary for clinical pathologists ranges from $183,000 to $360,000.
The American Board of Pathology certifies clinical pathologists, and recognizes the following secondary specialties of clinical pathology:
- Chemical pathology, also called clinical chemistry
- Hematopathology
- Blood banking / transfusion medicine
- Clinical microbiology
- Cytogenetics
- Molecular genetics pathology
Tools of clinical pathology include macroscopic examination, microscopes, microscopical examination, analyzers, centrifuges and cultures.
The ASCP has more than 100,000 members worldwide, and “provides excellence in education, certification and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists and laboratory professionals across the globe.”
‘Health Lawyers News’ Attacks Pathology Part A
CEO SUMMARY: Pathologists should take time to read the cover story in the May 2003 issue of Health Lawyers News. Although the story nominally addresses questions involving how hospitals should reimburse physicians for administrative duties, it deals mostly with clinical pathology…
Oldest “Working” Pathologist Dies at 104 on March 9
WORKING EIGHT-HOUR DAYS until a few weeks before his death on March 9, pathologist F. William Sunderman, M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., lived a remarkable life. During his 104-year life, Dr. Sunderman played a key role in founding the Pennsylvania Association of Clinical Pathologists in 1946 a…
Labs In United Kingdom Study U.S., Canadian Labs
CEO SUMMARY: It was a groundbreaking first for both sides of the Atlantic. Senior pathologists and laboratory directors in the United Kingdom spent two days learning from their North American counterparts about the challenges and difficulties in laboratory consolidation and regionalizatio…
New Market Channel For Esoteric Testing
CEO SUMMARY: It’s a new marketing model for specialty esoteric tests that presents both clinical and financial challenges to hospital and health system laboratories. Niche labs offering esoteric tests are sending sales reps directly to physicians and bypassing pathologists and lab direc…
Reactions To FL Court’s Ruling On Clin Path Fees
CEO SUMMARY: Reimbursement for clinical pathology professional services is under attack in a variety of ways throughout the United States. Recently a Florida Court of Appeal added a new court ruling to the growing body of legal decisions on this topic. Careful study of the ruling shows th…
Attack on Clinical Path Professional Payments
MANY PATHOLOGISTS WITH AN ECONOMIC INTEREST in clinical pathology professional component reimbursement have yet to fully appreciate the impact of an unfavorable decision rendered by a Florida appeals court recently. As you will read on page 5, an insurance company in Florida was actively sending let…
Lab Testing to Boom During This Decade
CEO SUMMARY: Several recent acquisitions of lab test technology by billion-dollar diagnostics manufacturers reinforce a new reality in the healthcare marketplace: developing new diagnostic tests is faster, cheaper, and more profitable than developing new pharmaceutical products. This simp…
Florida Appeals Court Strikes Blow To Clinical Path Payment
LEGAL ARGUMENTS SUPPORTING payment for clinical pathology professional services were dealt a blow when Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal issued an unfavorable ruling on July 12 in Daytona Beach, Florida. “The import of the court’s ruling seems to be that a pathologist in Florida cannot …
Military Labs Creating Global Lab Test Data Pool With LOINC
CEO SUMMARY: It’s a laboratory regionalization project without precedent because of its worldwide scale. Within the Armed Forces, laboratorians are working to seamlessly integrate laboratory test data generated by laboratories within the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Veterans Administratio…
Pathology Part A Comp Under Attack by Both Hospitals and Insurers
CEO SUMMARY: In steadily-growing numbers, hospitals and insurers are taking active steps to reduce or eliminate compensation for clinical pathology professional services, also commonly referred to as “Part A” services. Unfortunately, many pathology groups fail to anticipate this situati…
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