The surgical pathologist as a diagnostician and consultant

The primary role of the surgical pathologist is to diagnose, and then to transmit this information effectively so that it can be used to guide patient management; therefore, the dual roles of the surgical pathologist as a diagnostician and consultant are inextricable. The diagnostic pathologist determines the nature, extent, and rate of disease processes as well as response to therapy or the effects of medication, on the basis of morphologic observations. This presentation reviews some historic aspects of the evolution of surgical pathology, and its projected status in the medical community. The paradoxical (mis)concept of the pathologist with his microscope and slide, in vacuo, devoid of pertinent clinical data, as a pristine expression of objectivity is discusses and compared with the real world in which veracity is a proper surrogate for blind objectivity. The molding of the scientific method with the art of clinical practice by the pathologist is also considered.