I remember on one particular occasion many years ago, a friend came to me with concern that one of her family members had been diagnosed with colorectal adenocarcinoma. Although I’m not yet a healthcare provider, I have unfortunately had friends who have themselves received diagnoses of cancer and were presented with the biopsy results by their physician.
However, conveying to a patient their grading/staging can end up requiring considerably more nuance. As a quick example, there are treatment guidelines/prognoses associated with the grading and staging of various malignancies, and it’s definitely a process to memorize these and follow them accordingly, with the appropriate judgement calls. Yet, I would argue that providers need to have a substantially deeper understand of pathology to communicate to patients. There are several layers of depth to this on the surface, it’s obvious that providers need to have an understanding of the pathology of disease to effectively treat it.
The less obvious answer pertains to what an understanding of pathology on an individual-provider-level contributes to patient care. This understanding of pathology is hidden from most eyes, yet it’s what enables modern patient care. The sheer number of moving parts - and the fact that it even works - is astonishing. I recently had the opportunity to tour the laboratories at Duke and witness the extraordinary infrastructure and technological stack that coalesces together to enable the high-throughput analysis required by the hospital. I think it’s easy to take lab orders for granted and remain blissfully unaware of the miraculous journey a blood draw, for example, embarks on after it’s drawn.
The obvious one relates to the specific role of pathologists in healthcare pathology is the backbone of modern medicine - without labs, cultures, biopsies, etc., modern clinical practice would come to a grinding halt (though we would still have clinical intuition/skills to guide treatment). This question has two immediate answers in my mind: one obvious answer and one subtle/more meaningful answer. * Pictured: Andrea Deyrup, MD, PhD, presenting book prize to Sully Chen He is passionate about research in many fields and has published work (or has work under review) in pure mathematics, earth science, artificial intelligence, physical chemistry, sleep medicine, and neurosurgery. He was previously a research scientist at OpenAI and his primary interest is the emerging role of artificial general intelligence in medicine. He closed the essay by writing, “ A deep understanding of pathology, when transferred to the patient via the caring words of a provider, yields the courage to bravely face what is known, rather than wander through the fog.”Ĭhen is a medical student from Los Angeles. In it, he discusses the roles of pathologists in healthcare and how their understanding of pathology on an individual-provider level positively contributes to patient care. Sully Chen won with his essay titled “How Does Understanding Pathology Help Inform and Improve Patient Care?” The Pathology Interest Group (PIG) sponsored an essay contest in April for first-year Duke medical and Pathologists Assistant Program students to win a copy of the “Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease” textbook. Research & Core Facilities toggle sub nav items.
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