What is a Laboratory Medicine (Clinical Pathology) Doctor?
When your doctor orders a blood or urine test, or takes a biopsy, all you usually know is that the sample goes to some mysterious place (“the lab” or “pathology”) and either the same day or a few days later your doctor suddenly has a better idea of what is wrong with you and what to do about it. The lab, however, is not really all that mysterious a place – blood, urine and other samples are handled in a way that is somewhat similar to what goes on in your doctor’s office. In fact, although you only meet them when you need very special types of laboratory procedures done, there are “laboratory doctors” (known as “laboratory medicine physicians” or “clinical pathologists”) who supervise and directly carry-out these laboratory tests that are used to diagnose your illness and to determine what is the best treatment for your condition. The sample that gets sent to the lab represents (obviously) a “part of you” and that part needs to be examined the same way the doctor examines all of you in
When your doctor orders a blood or urine test, or takes a biopsy, all you usually know is that the sample goes to some mysterious place (“the lab” or “pathology”) and either the same day or a few days later your doctor suddenly has a better idea of what is wrong with you and what to do about it. The lab, however, is not really all that mysterious a place – blood, urine and other samples are handled in a way that is somewhat similar to what goes on in your doctor’s office. In fact, although you only meet them when you need very special types of laboratory procedures done, there are “laboratory doctors” (known as “laboratory medicine physicians” or “clinical pathologists”) who supervise and directly carry-out these laboratory tests that are used to diagnose your illness and to determine what is the best treatment for your condition. The sample that gets sent to the lab represents (obviously) a “part of you” and that part needs to be examined the same way the doctor examines all of you in
When your doctor orders a blood or urine test, or takes a biopsy, all you usually know is that the sample goes to some mysterious place (“the lab” or “pathology”) and either the same day or a few days later your doctor suddenly has a better idea of what is wrong with you and what to do about it. The lab, however, is not really all that mysterious a place – blood, urine and other samples are handled in a way that is somewhat similar to what goes on in your doctor’s office. In fact, although you only meet them when you need very special types of laboratory procedures done, there are “laboratory doctors” (known as “laboratory medicine physicians” or “clinical pathologists”) who supervise and directly carry-out these laboratory tests that are used to diagnose your illness and to determine what is the best treatment for your condition. The sample that gets sent to the lab represents (obviously) a “part of you” and that part needs to be examined the same way the doctor examines all of you in
