Do pathologists have direct contact with patients?
Generally, unlike a clinical physician, a pathologist will have no direct patient contact. The clinical physician will complete a pathology requisition with the clinical diagnosis. This requisition is then sent to the lab with the specimen for a pathologist to examine. After the pathologist carefully reviews the specimen, the physician’s clinical information, and the patient’s history, a diagnosis is rendered. The diagnostic report is then issued, delivered to the patient’s physician, who then reviews the results. If the physician concurs, the results will then be presented to the patient as a definitive diagnosis during the follow-up visit, and it is upon this diagnosis that the physician will decide the best method of treatment. Think of a pathologist and a physician as a two-person team. It is important that your doctor sends to an experienced pathologist as well as an established diagnostics laboratory, such as Acupath, in order to receive the most accurate results, and ultimately,
