Pathology is defined as a branch of medical science that studies the nature, effects, causes and consequences of disease.
Preparing to Be a Pathologist
- A person must go to school for a medical degree plus an additional three to four years, concentrating solely in the field of pathology.
- There are also many sub-specialties in the field of pathology that a pathologists can choose to concentrate on when studying.
- Pathologists are required to be board certified in the field of pathology once they have completed schooling.
- Most pathologists choose to become either clinical pathologists working in a lab or anatomical pathologists who practice in a sub-specialty of anatomical pathology.
- Pathologists work in hospital or private practice settings, looking at samples of tissue, blood, and fluid to identify abnormal factors of the samples and make a diagnosis of a patient’s condition and the disease that is causing their bodies to behave abnormally.
(noun)An example of pathology is when a pathologist studies the cells removed during a biopsy to test for signs of cancer.