Dave
Medical biochemistry vs clinical pathology
Hi. Recently I was searching information about medical residencies and I found out that laboratory medicine has some kind of two "similar" specialties. So, my question is: what are the main differences between a physician with a specialty in medical biochemistry and another one with clinical pathology? The first one will be doing 5 years of training focusing only on medical biochemistry and the second one will get an overall training within all the different laboratory fields (biochem., microbio., haemathology, etc.). Which one is better in terms of "skills" for a "laboratory physician"? Does the clinical pathologist having the same knowledge in biochemistry than the medical biochemist physician? Thank you! #medicine #biochemistry #pathologist #healthcare #physician
1 answer
Caroline V
Caroline’s Answer
A pathologist is a physician who studies body fluids and tissues, helps your primary care doctor make a diagnosis about your health or any medical problems you have, and uses laboratory tests to monitor the health of patients with chronic conditions.
However if you are interested in working as a Surgical Pathologist , You would perform Bone Marrow procedures, review CT samples that are collected during surgery. Also Frozen samples are evaluated as the patient is in surgery so the doctor knows if all the cancer was removed or what needs to be done. The Surgical Pathologists that work in a hospital setting are located in the Laboratory and are responsible for reviewing laboratory policy changes. Pathologists work with all lab personal and with physicians throughout the hospital. In some cases they have done autopsies. Pathologists requires more schooling than a Bio Chemist.