Pathologist

Pathology provides an understanding of the process of disease and is multidisciplinary. It has five main specialties which have further sub-specialties.

Chemical pathology
Haematology (doctor)
Histopathology (doctor)
Microbiology and virology (doctor)
Chemical pathology

Chemical pathologists run and manage the biochemistry laboratory. Hundreds of samples are analysed each day for testing. The tests can be very wide-ranging but might include measurement of:

Electrolytes (minerals) in the blood, to indicate heart and other diseases
Liver function
Tumour markers
Sub-specialties

Metabolic medicine is the only sub-specialty within chemical pathology. It includes the following clinical areas:

Nutrition, including total parenteral nutrition (TPN) for intravenous feeding and nutrition following gastric surgery
Cardiovascular risk
Diabetes mellitus
Metabolic bone disease , eg osteoporosis
Inherited metabolic disease (IMD)
Haematology (doctor)

Haematologists diagnose and clinically manage disorders of the blood and bone marrow. They also provide clinical support for the haematology diagnostic laboratory including the blood bank.

Common procedures/interventions

These include:

Delivering clinical care, often for life-threatening disease
Formulating chemotherapy protocols and managing their delivery
Managing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation procedures
Providing advice on haematology laboratory results
Sampling bone marrow and interpreting the morphology
Performing diagnostic lumbar punctures and giving intra-thecal chemotherapy
Haemato-oncology (acute and chronic leukaemias, lymphoma, multiple myeloma)
Haemostasis/thrombosis (congenital and acquired disorders of haemostasis and blood coagulation and management of antithrombotic therapies)
Disorders of blood production and destruction (including bone marrow failure, anaemias and autoimmune blood diseases)
Transfusion medicine
Paediatric haematology
Histopathology (doctor)

We diagnose and study disease using expert medical interpretation of cells and tissue samples. The specialty determines the cause of death by performing autopsies and is integral to cancer management through staging and grading of tumours.

Common procedures/interventions

Examination and dissection of surgical resection specimens, to select the most appropriate samples for microscope slides
Microscopic examination of tissues, with subsequent construction of clinical reports
Carrying out fine-needle aspirations
Carrying out autopsies
Microbiology and virology (doctor)

Microbiology and virology (MMV) involve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the spread of infection in hospitals and the community. Both these specialties are laboratory-based, but make a major contribution to clinical infection management.

Microbiologists use techniques that include:

Traditional culture techniques such as microbiological stains
Measuring antibody response to infection
Detection of microbial antigens
Nucleic acid amplification (polymerase chain reaction)
Virologists use techniques including:

Antigen detection techniques
High-throughput nucleic acid extraction techniques
Laboratory staff will then provide the results of cultures of blood and sterile fluids that have become positive overnight. Urgent and important results are communicated directly to clinical colleagues