This article waslast modified on 10 July 2017.
A physician who has particular knowledge and skills in the use patient’s tissues (fluids such as blood, urine and sputum, and solid tissues from biopsies, surgery and post-mortem) to aid the characterisation, diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Pathologists work in two broad areas:
Clinical Pathology /Laboratory Medicine deals with the measurement of chemical constituents of blood and other body fluids (clinical biochemistry), analysis of blood cells (haematology), observation and measurement of proteins related to diseases of the immune system (immunology), identification of microorganisms (microbiology), and the collection, preparation and use of blood for transfusion (transfusion medicine).
Anatomic Pathology /Cellular Pathology is the examination of the physical appearance and microscopic structure of tissues. Anatomic pathologists look at biopsies and organs removed at surgery (surgical pathology) as well as cells that are collected from brushings or body fluids (cytology). They also perform post-mortems to investigate the cause of death.
Consultant Pathologists and Clinical Scientists direct the laboratories that perform these tests and provide consultation to other doctors on the significance of test results.