The practical habits you wish you had learned in residency
Congratulations, you’re board-certified! Now what? In the dinosaur era, pathologists were required to fly to Tampa and sit for a recertification exam every 10 years but now maintenance of certification is much less stressful and onerous. For maintenance of certification,
Continue readingMaking sense of MOC – how to stay board-certified as a pathologist
It’s 7:30 am and you’re assessing your workload for the day and the phone rings “We have a frozen.” In my early attending days, frozen sections felt like my worst nightmare. There’s a reason I’m not an emergency medicine physician.
Continue readingReading frozen sections: How I learned to stop dreading them and start having fun
When you arrive in the morning to a huge stack of slide folders, it’s very tempting to want to jump right into reviewing slides to get through them as efficiently as possible. But, efficiency isn’t the only goal or even
Continue readingFrom gross to sign out: a systematic approach to reviewing pathology cases
History: 44 y/o female presents with biliary colic and undergoes a cholecystectomy Histology: Diagnosis: Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis The first image shows gallbladder mucosa with chronic inflammation and reactive epithelial changes. The following images show regions deeper in the submucosa and muscularis
Continue readingUnknown case #2 -middle-aged female with biliary colic
History: 44 year-old female presents with a persistent tongue lesion x 4 months Histology: Diagnosis: Irritation fibroma and traumatic neuroma. Irritation fibroma – Benign reactive fibroblast proliferation that usually affects the lateral tongue and buccal mucosa. Histologic sections show a
Continue readingUnknown Case #1 – middle aged female with a tongue lesion
Your first day as an attending pathologist is the start of a new chapter. Overnight, you’re no longer a trainee and you’re now the one responsible with your name signed on the final report. It is 100% normal for this
Clinical history: 75 year-old female with intestinal metaplasia seen on previous random gastric biopsy Site: Stomach (body) Histology: Diagnosis: Autoimmune metaplastic atrophic gastritis Diagnostic notes: As compared to H. pylori gastritis, the inflammation is predominantly in base of the mucosa
Clinical history: 26 year-old male with no significant past medical history presents with persistent vague abdominal pain Site: Stomach Histology: Diagnosis: Helicobacter pylori gastritis Diagnostic notes: It’s important to distinguish Helicobacter pylori gastritis from autoimmune metaplastic atrophic gastritis (AMAG) which
I’m an AP/CP board-certified pathologist currently practicing in the Midwest in a community hospital setting. I graduated medical school in 2011, completed AP/CP pathology residency in 2015 and GI pathology fellowship in 2016. I have worked full-time in various practice