Clinical pathology

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Clinical pathology is one of the two major divisions within the medical specialty of pathology. A clinical pathologist is a medical doctor responsible for the diagnosis of diseases based on the analysis of body fluids like blood, urine, etc. He/she works in close collaboration with medical technologists.

The American Board of Pathology certifies clinical pathologists, and recognizes the following secondary specialties of clinical pathology:

• Chemical pathology, also called clinical chemistry
• Haematology
• Blood banking – Transfusion medicine
• Medical microbiology
• Cytogenetics
• Molecular genetics pathology

In some country, in Western Europe or Africa this specialty can be exercized by non-physicians doctors, like Pharm.D or Ph.D after a variable number of year of residency.

For example, in France, Clinical Pathology called Medical Biology (“Biologie médicale”) is both exercized by M.D and Pharm.D .