PATHOLOGY CLUB MEETING JANUARY 2003
The Physician's Physician
"One of the most important aspects of our job is educating--students, doctors, researchers, the public. We are the physician's physician." -- Dawn Pavot, 5th Year Resident
Dr. Dawn Pavot already has a
job waiting for her when she finishes her 5th year of Pathology Residency.
"There's a real need for pathologists everywhere, and they can expect
well-above-average salaries with respectable work hours," she said.
But the thrill of the job itself is what fuels her devotion. When it comes to--diagnosing and staging cancer; identifying infectious diseases; detecting occult disease; performing hemotherapy and transfusions; autopsies and forensic investigations to the challenges of intraoperative consultation; medical education; and research in cutting-edge genomics, proteomics, early cancer detection and treatment--the pathologist is always there, fulfilling a vital role.
Dr. Pavot presented The Physician's Physician to a jam-packed Pathology Club Meeting held Tuesday, January 21 in Sanger Hall. The Pathology Club is sponsored by the VCU Department of Pathology.
Pathologists work with patients, with clinical laboratory staff, with other educators, researchers and students and support a wide variety of medical professionals. The doctor's doctor has to be a real "people" person, said Dr. Pavot.
Pathology is usually broken into two major camps--anatomic pathology and clinical pathology. Primarily, anatomic pathologists examine outpatient biopsies as well as tissue specimens from the operating room; perform and interpret fine needle aspiration biopsies; examine body fluids including urine, spinal fluid, and pleural fluid; analyze pap smears; perform autopsies; and as always, teach. Clinical pathologists direct hospital laboratories including hematology, transfusion medicine, chemistry, toxicology, microbiology, and immunology. Many pathologists in an academic setting choose either anatomic or clinical pathology, while those in private community practice do both.
For more information about the VCU Pathology Club contact Hattie Wyche at (804) 827-1079, hmwyche@hsc.vcu.edu. Also, feel free to contact Dr. Dawn Pavot at doctordtr@aol.com.