As a doctor’s doctor, AskPath is here to help patients and clinicians gain better understanding of health and what it all means.
Who are our Pathologists?
Pathologists spend 4-6 years of training after medical school with residency and sub-specialty training. Most providers are board-certified in anatomical and clinical pathology. Anatomical pathology (AP) includes performing autopsies, looking at biopsies and specimens under the microscope to give a diagnosis. If you have your gallbladder taken out, an anatomical pathologist would have looked at it under the microscope and submitted a thorough report.
You usually get the information relayed to you by your physician. If you go and get your labs drawn and find out that you may have high cholesterol or high white count, a clinical pathologist may have overseen those tests being run or looked at your blood cells under a microscope. Clinical pathologists (CP) oversee laboratories dealing with blood issues, microbiology and lab tests like chemistry. A clinical pathologist also must make sure that all machines that are used to run your tests are properly functioning so that your results are precise.