Talk:Pathologist

''Pathologists usually do not see patients, only specimens or autopsies. For this reason, another name for pathology is Laboratory Medicine. In addition to the diagnosis of patients and the administration of medical laboratories, pathologists often participate in the teaching of medical students (Pathology is a core course in the medical curriculum). Pathologists express their opinion as a pathology report adressed to the doctor requesting it. Since pathologists most often communicate with other doctors, they are sometimes nicknamed "the doctor's doctor". Pathology is the most scientific branch of Medicine.''

Dont these two statement conflict somewhat?--Light current 23:55, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't think they contradict, diagnosis of patients could be using specimens or autopsies, as said, and not necessarily seeing the patient and asking him/her questions. - Adrian, March 17 2006

They don't at all. You see, all the pathologists do is look at slides from biopsies or autopsies. They never see the patient, but with a good biopsy and history report, a pathologist can make a good diagnosis. --VashiDonsk 23:51, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually, pathologists may see patients, if they perform fine needle aspirations themselves. In addition, if a clinical pathologist, they may visit a patient in the hospital as a consultant, and may be asked to perform bone marrow biopsies on a patient. --JCyrisse 01:33, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Page Restructure
I think this page would be better restructured. For example, perhaps after the definition, and instead of Pathologists' work, use topics such as Pathologist Training, Pathologist Specialties and Subspecialties, Pathologist Role in Patient Care, Pathologist Demographics (ie. # in US, male vs female probably from AMA), Pathologist Tools (i.e. microscope, cryostat, etc.). --JCyrisse 02:01, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Merger proposal
Since a separate article on pathology (and the medical specialty, pathologist) already exist and is more detailed than this, i suggest this article to be merged into pathology. Senaiboy (talk) 09:11, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
 * On second thought, since most of the other medical specialty has their own article on their respective occupation, i've removed the merger proposal. Maybe someone can expand this article instead. -Senaiboy (talk) 09:18, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

What medical specialties are you referring to that have separate "-ist" from "-ology" articles? From my exploration, almost all have combined articles for the field and the physician:
 * Cardiologist → Cardiology
 * Dermatologist → Dermatology
 * Endocrinologist → Endocrinology
 * Gastroenterologist → Gastroenterology
 * Gynaecologist → Gynaecology
 * Hematologist → Hematology
 * Hepatologist → Hepatology
 * Pediatrician → Pediatrics
 * Pulmonologist → Pulmonology
 * Nephrologist → Nephrology
 * Neurologist → Neurology
 * Obstetrician → Obstetrics
 * Oncologist → Oncology
 * Ophthalmologist → Ophthalmology
 * Orthopedist → Orthopedic surgery
 * Plastic surgeon → Plastic surgery
 * Proctologist → Proctology
 * Radiologist → Radiology
 * Rheumatologist → Rheumatology
 * Urologist → Urology

I found 2 exceptions:
 * 1) There is an article called Anesthesiologist, but there is no article called Anesthesiology (it redirects to Anesthesia).
 * 2) Psychiatrist exists in addition to psychiatry.  I believe these should be merged, as the only content unique to psychiatrist is the "Professional requirements" paragraph, which could easily be integrated into psychiatry.

So why not merge the articles? I can't think of anything that could be added to this article that wouldn't duplicate what is already in pathology. --Scott Alter 06:02, 13 February 2008 (UTC)