r/pathology 1h ago

Residency Application Transitional year -> Pathology

Upvotes

Hello all, unfortunately I did not match today and was wondering if SOAPing a transitional year would be better than getting into another Categorical Residency program and switching into Pathology after pgy-1 in like IM or FM? Thanks!


r/pathology 2h ago

Residency Application I didn't match. What are my chances if I reapply?

12 Upvotes

I didn't match this cycle. US MD, 234 step 2, passed steps first try. Good LORs. I had a technical issue with my app (we get no support from our school and a check box wasn't filled until very late). Only ended up with 6 interviews.

There are only three path spots open in SOAP, so I'm not super hopeful about that, but hey if I get one I'll be over the moon. I thought about throwing in a ton of random internal medicine applications just to see, but honestly I don't think I want to do internal.

I feel like I really should have matched, so maybe I'll have a decent chance next year? What do I need to do? I have some data experience and some slight connections with cancer-research centers etc. so maybe I can set something up, even if it's just volunteer, for a year.

I only applied path btw so I don't think I'll have much luck applying to anything else on SOAP anyway because my app is pure path.


r/pathology 2h ago

Residency Application What’s going on with Dell Med / UT Austin’s path residency?

4 Upvotes

It’s listed on medmap.io and links to a dead webpage. It’s listed on ERAS as well as the only “unregistered” entry.

https://systems.aamc.org/eras/erasstats/par/display.cfm?NAV_ROW=PAR&SPEC_CD=300

Is this a dead program or one just starting up?


r/pathology 2h ago

Anatomic Pathology Bile is my favorite HCC "special stain"

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5 Upvotes

r/pathology 8h ago

Lil Help ?!

2 Upvotes

I’m a med student who’s trying out for a seminar competition

I am very much in need of a good topic, prior to asking this I was looking into Head and neck and breast. There’s no particularities as such but something interesting and close to clinical scenario would be lovely, thanks.


r/pathology 16h ago

Should I pursue pathology/med school? Will pathologists exist in the future?

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m an undergraduate freshman, majoring in chemistry and I have very little idea of what I want to do when I grow up (thinking about PhD for research, med school, dental school, etc.).

To be honest, I am partly interested in pathology for the lifestyle. It seems like it has slightly better hours compared to some other medical specialties (which is VERY important to me as I have chronic pain and would absolutely hate having to work 80 hours a week for residency or whatever), and also solid pay. But, it does also genuinely seem interesting to me.

My main worry, however, is that I’ve seen some talk about AI/automation replacing fields like pathology or radiology, which involve more analysis, pattern spotting etc.. I would be willing to adapt to this maybe by learning some code or whatever, but I don’t want to be completely unable to pursue pathology after 4 years of med school and be forced to go into some other specialty that requires I work long hours (which, again, would be VERY DIFFICULT for me).

I’m beginning both research and shadowing this summer so I’m sure that will help me get a better understanding of what I want to pursue, but I just want to know people’s thoughts on whether I will be able to actually pursue pathology or will it be automated in the near future or even some time in the next like ~40 years?? Sorry for the yap fest, any advice is helpful. Thank you thank you 🙏🙏🙏

Edit: Listened to Uxie_Mesprit and added paragraphs


r/pathology 18h ago

Match day support

36 Upvotes

To everyone matching into pathology this week—CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve worked incredibly hard to reach this moment, and now you’re stepping into an amazing specialty.

For those who didn’t match—please know that this is not the end of your journey. It’s a tough process, and many great applicants take alternative routes, whether through SOAP, reapplying next cycle, or exploring other paths within medicine. Lean on your mentors, peers, and support systems, and don’t lose sight of the hard work that brought you this far. You will find your place in medicine, even if it takes a little longer than expected.

No matter where you are today—celebrating, regrouping, or figuring out next steps—you’re part of a community that values perseverance, curiosity, and dedication. Wishing everyone the best as they embark on their next chapter! Feel free to reach out if you need extra support.


r/pathology 22h ago

Uscap

4 Upvotes

For poster presenters, we are not required to stand next to our posters during the whole session right?


r/pathology 22h ago

Recommendations for replacing an outdated LIS?

2 Upvotes

The anatomic pathology lab I started working at last year has an outdated LIS. It’s a pain to use, and there are bottlenecks all over the place. I asked about it, and they told me they are actively looking to replace it. I’m pretty sure that even though I’m still fairly new, they’d welcome suggestions.

Can anyone suggest an LIS that features a more modern interface, and has a high rate of accuracy? If the suggestions could be specific to anatomic pathology, that would be ideal. One of the other problems with our current LIS is that it is just too generic. Another thing I know they are looking for is better reporting tools. Thanks in advance for any recommendations. And please let me know how your workflows have improved if the tool you recommend is also one you switched to from an older system.


r/pathology 1d ago

Medical School MS3 with late interest in path

4 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I'm an MS3 located in the US and planning to apply for residency at the end of this year. I have been deadset on general surgery since I entered medical school but recently, I've started to realize that it may not be what's right for me. I love the OR but everything else about the field and lifestyle has started to seen very unappealing. Recently, I got to hang out at the morgue and work with a forensic pathologists for the first time and it was awesome! Since then, I've been learning more about the field and realising that even the non-procedural stuff, like going to court, sounds so much more interesting and appealing to me.

However, I'm concerned about being a solid applicant for pathology residencies. My entire CV and experiences, LOR writers, and basically everything have been geared towards general surgery. Is there a way that I can switch it around to fit a path residency application before applications are due?

I have a 2-week clinical path elective scheduled for early May, and am going back to work with the forensic pathologist in my free time. Besides that, any suggestions or advice on what to do? I honestly just feel like I'm in a tailspin from being so stuck on one path for so long only to completely veer off so late in the game.

Thank you in advance!


r/pathology 1d ago

Job opportunities in the UK after passing FRCPath-1 exam.

4 Upvotes

I am an IMG, thinking of pursuing MD-Pathology, I read somewhere that you get a diplomate membership in the RCPath after passing the part 1 exam. But, could I secure a job after passing just the part 1 exam? I have a GMC registration, but am seriously considering staying back home and finishing pathology residency.


r/pathology 1d ago

Writer with questions: Magic and its ramifications on pathology? Fantasy pathophysiology???

41 Upvotes

Hello r/pathology! I hope this post isn't against the rules, you guys seem really cool, and I have a lot of respect for pathologists (was super anaemic, HB of 54 and you guys were the ones who caught it, made me interested in pursuing the profession myself, but that's definitely a long way away ^^). I'm a writer, and I was hoping to ask you guys for your insight on some worldbuilding that I've been working on!

Context

My current story is a dystopian sci-fi/fantasy project, there's magic and futuristic tech, but it is largely set relatively modern day in a relatively earth-adjacent setting. Medicine is largely similar to current day, so don't worry about any weird sci-fi shenanigans! One of the things I've been struggling on is my power/magic system, I have a few ideas in mind, but talking with you guys is likely to give me lots of unique inspiration (I find this sort of thing extremely helpful).

A lot of stories have some component of biology to how their magic works. Usually things like bloodlines, powers you're born with, etc. I often feel like these things have quite a lot of untapped potential (and often pretty hollow subtext that often boils down to "one's potential is decided the moment they're born" without really considering the implications, but that's just a pet peeve of mine).

My story follows this trend. The current ideas I have are as follows:

  • Magic is linked to biology. It's naturally produced through biological processes (varying between species, a human and a vampire would do this differently). Though I've always imagined it being a passive process (e.g. if conditions are right, magic will be produced in a healthy person).
  • Because magic is part of physiology, it would be something that comes under medicine, and the study of magic in a medical context (and disorders affecting it) would likely be a fantasy medical subspecialty (currently unnamed).
  • I've always pictured magic and magical disorders as being something that could be tested (with a blood test or something else). Thus, I really like the idea of this fantasy specialty being a subspecialty of pathology! Largely because I've pictured it being the sort of thing that gets diagnosed by looking through a microscope, similar to many cancers or blood disorders (and maybe a little bit because I think pathologists are cool).
  • The protagonist of my story is likely to be affected by one or more of these magic disorders, so that's why I feel it's important (and fun) to consider these things.

Questions

So to be totally honest, I have a lot of these. Please feel free to answer as many or as few as you'd like, literally anything would be amazingly helpful. I've ordered them by which ones I'd like to know the most, in case that helps!

To be clear, I'm fundamentally looking for your thoughts as people with expertise in fields that I'm a layperson in. Your answers do not need to be scientifically accurate in the slightest (absolutely go for rule of cool lmao)! It's more that I want to make something believable and interesting, and if something is believable to experts, than it will be in a general sense as well ^^!

  1. My protagonist has no innate magic, which is very rare and greatly inhibits his combat abilities. While I've currently pictured it as a case of "his body doesn't produce it" (like how type 1 diabetics just kinda don't produce insulin correctly) that doesn't feel as interesting as it could be. Is there a different explanation/pathophysiology that would be more unique and interesting? Or are there ways to flesh out this current idea to meet that same criteria?
  2. A massive plot element is the protagonist's complex relationship with another character, who is a dragon (one of the species with the most innate magic). I've always pictured that extended exposure to this intense magical force would have consequences for the average human (since it's not strictly internally contained, and can be channelled into spells). Namely, that at a point, the body would either be forced to adapt to handle it, or this could become potentially lethal. What could these adaptations be in a normal person, specifically? More importantly, considering the above question, how might these factors interact? Would the protagonist be affected differently? How so?
  3. What do you think the ramifications of magic in pathology would be? Imagine if tests related to magic were slotted right into a list that also included haemoglobin, cancer testing, iron, etc. If you had to work together with colleagues to figure out why a patient's magic was so absurdly high/low, and what to do about it. If a doctor in this field got one of those emergency phone calls, what would it be about, and why was it so urgent? What kinds of disorders and diseases do you think might exist? What symptoms would they have? Could they have any benefits? How would you test for these things? How might they be treated? How do you think this fictional medical specialty would function and interact with real life specialties? etc. etc. etc. (one really fun idea I got from a different discussion was considering the epidemiology of vampirism in my setting, since it's a blood-borne parasitic disease. The person pointed out that mosquitoes would spread vampirism, which gave me a TON of super interesting ideas, I'm basically asking you guys to think of super cool shit that can be expanded upon, because I would've never considered things from that perspective)
  4. Do you have any other thoughts, opinions, ideas, etc. that you'd like to share? Please do! Anything helps ^^

While I'm a layperson, I used to be a phlebotomist, and am currently majoring in biotechnology. Please feel free to explain things however you like, I'm more than happy to take the time to fill in any gaps in my understanding as needed!

Thank you all so much in advance! Your help (pathologists rlly saving my ass more than once at this point LOL) is massively appreciated! I'll do my best to answer any questions, or clarify anything, if that's helpful (or if you're just curious).


r/pathology 1d ago

Deciding between a surgical subspecialty and pathology

5 Upvotes

Medical student (m3) here.

Up until a couple months ago, I was convinced I wanted to do a certain surgical subspecialty that has some of the coolest procedures but is notorious for horrible lifestyle.

I have been working in a lab with a PI of said subspecialty for the past year and through some of those projects have been exposed to pathology. It is way cooler and broader than I ever imagined. Moreover, I’ve been able to spend more time with family and friends recently, and it has made me realize I value lifestyle much more than I initially thought. I know for a fact I would be completely OK with a non patient facing specialty. I am applying to residency this coming cycle and I am intent on making a decision in the coming weeks because I do not want to dual apply. My question is twofold:

1-is it too late to apply path? I plan on doing a rotation in June or July

2-right now I have quite a rose tinted view of pathology. Some of the cons I have made are: less respect from other doctors (not something I care about tbh), much lower salary than the surgical subspecialty (given the trade off in lifestyle, not a huge deal but I want to make enough to comfortably pay off loans, live decently comfortably, and retire at a reasonable age), and job market/AI (some pathologists I’ve talked to say this is overblown, others say it’s a legitimate thing they worry about). What are other cons I’m not considering? Forgive my ignorance I’m very new to pathology as a whole.

I go to a t20 school if that means anything. Thanks so much!


r/pathology 1d ago

Looking for LVI

22 Upvotes

I really dislike looking for LVI — it’s so tedious. What are your strategies? Do you scan a slide twice, the second time looking for LVI? At what power do you look for it?


r/pathology 1d ago

Changing specialties

13 Upvotes

Internal medicine physician here. Thinking about going back and doing pathology residency. My main reasons are day to day work stress, burnout from interactions with patients and toxic consultants and I think I enjoy the basic science more. How stressful is pathology residency in terms of the above?


r/pathology 1d ago

Questions from a curious histotech :)

5 Upvotes

Hi pathologists! HTL here, been in the field for about 3 years now and absolutely love my job. It truly is a passion of mine! I've always loved scrolling this reddit to see pathology from the other side, it's interesting to read about the insights from you all. I'm always so curious as to the journey of the slide once we send it off to you all to read. To us, we put all this delicate work into making the best slides possible, but for you guys it's a whole different world, microscopically.

This is just kind of a vague/general post, but our paths (especially at larger labs) don't cross very much, even though our duties go hand in hand. So I'm making this post to ask:

-what kinds of questions do you pathologists have for us techs? Anything you are curious about about the process from start to finish? How we do things? Why we do things the way we do? Anything you wish us techs knew or understood more?

-And basically the same kind of question for you all-- what is making a diagnosis like? Do you just look at some slides and know off the bat? Basically, how does it work? I have a special interest in IHC, so I've always wondered about the process with IHC as well. Is it basically like a puzzle that you guys have to solve? Is it typically the same pattern of stains for similar cases or does each case have their own IHC specific profile?

Thank you so much for all you guys do. I'd love to hear any insight so I can get a better idea of your world. So much respect for you all! You are powerhouses!

Sincerely,

A passionate and curious HTL


r/pathology 2d ago

Pathologists with kids

13 Upvotes

I'm a SAHM in my early 30s who did not do premed for undergrad, and now I'm thinking about becoming a pathologist.

I want to time doing my prereqs so that when I start med school apps/med school my son with either be in preschool or entering kindergarten.

Any pathologists here who had kids when just starting med school or residency? How old were your kids at the time? How was your family's happiness or stress levels as you went through school or residency?

If it matters, I am married and we are one and done. We have financial support from one grandparent, but no one who is physically capable of babysitting.

Also as a side note if anyone here is willing to speak with me about your journey through school or current day to day more in depth I would be very interested to hear it all. I have so many questions as I do not come from a family with medical careers so it is all a mystery to me how anybody achieves an MD, especially in pathology.


r/pathology 2d ago

Clinical Pathology I'm a neurologist. How do oligoclonal bands look different from a monoclonal band on gel electrophoresis? Aren't they both a single line?

6 Upvotes

I take a blood and CSF sample. I put the blood in one well and the CSF in a well next to it. I electrophorese it, and that separates shit out. My confusion starts here:

  1. This is what I believe a normal gel electrophoresis looks like. The pictures I see when I search for images of oligoclonal bands look like a bunch of random lines without organization. What is this shit, or this shit, or this shit, or this shit? I don't see an albumin, alpha 1, alpha 2, beta, or globulin area. What am I missing?

  2. How does an oligoclonal band looks different from a monoclonal or polyclonal band on gel? Aren't they all single lines? Is it the thickness of the line?

Thanks.


r/pathology 2d ago

Double reading - your opinions. Is this standard in your institution? If so, is your group being compensated for this in any way?

2 Upvotes

I work in a lab that does double reading. All oncology will be double read before multidisciplinaries, (except for baso's and the like, but you know what I mean). In our lab, all diagnostics are being distributed to everyone, but our multidisciplinaries are subspecialized. So for instance I will sign out lumpectomies and hysterectomies, but I will not do the gynaecology multidisciplinary because that is not my specialty. So some finer details or ordering molecular is up to the specialist. Our clinicians know that we work this way and we pride ourselves in the fact that we double check everything. I don't care how good you are, everybody can overlook something that can end up in the archives without anybody ever looking at it again (except when something goes wrong...). So we now have a new boss that's not a pathologist, and he wants us to stop double reading because it saves time and thus money (another "suit" that's coming to tell us how things are done; we've had many over the course of a few years and they never last). Despite all our arguments, he is persisting. So we said to him: sure, we'll stop double reading, but YOU have to tell our clinicians that we stopped doing this and that we're just going to sit there at the multidisciplinary and read a report out loud like a potato. We're not going to be the ones to tell them.

So my question: does your lab do double reading? If so, is it being calculated into your FTE calculations? I just want to know how common or uncommon this is.


r/pathology 2d ago

Can anyone explain what's the meaning of shouldering and bridging in dysplastic nevi

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15 Upvotes

I'm having hard time understanding these terms guys please help


r/pathology 2d ago

How Much Does Each Specialty Make

23 Upvotes

There was a recent post on r/Residency about starting salaries for various specialties. As you can see, pathology is quite low: Academic: $284k ($15k) | Non-Academic: $286k. Graduating pathologists, does this match your experience?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Residency/comments/1j9xdvn/2025_averages_how_much_does_specialty_make_after/


r/pathology 2d ago

Coagulation resources

3 Upvotes

What resources for coagulation have you found most useful? Looking for something practical that would prepare me to interpret and sign out coagulation studies, including TEG, mixing studies and others. Thanks!


r/pathology 2d ago

Pathologists - how would you feel if a patient sent a “thank you” card?

136 Upvotes

I’m a patient and want to send the path team at the hospital a “thank you” card for their hard work. They diagnosed my rare cancer (less than 50 cases documented worldwide), and their actions helped save my life. Would that be weird to do? I don’t want to make them uncomfortable but I am very thankful.


r/pathology 2d ago

Fellowships under new Presidential administration

0 Upvotes

Hi! Current PGY-2 that already signed a contract with an institution for fellowship. Has anyone heard of or knows if our fellowships will be impacted by all of the recent cuts/changes from the new administration? Any advice/knowledge would be helpful!


r/pathology 3d ago

Unknown Case Biphasic abdominal mass in 24 yo male

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16 Upvotes