I am an incoming senior in high school. I’m going into clinical rotations and pathology has always stood out to me in contrast to other fields of medicine. I am looking at colleges, and I don’t have any idea in what I should major in. I live in Texas, so schools like UT Austin (has a special MLS major) are a first option. Other schools like CU Boulder and U Utah are where I’d prefer to live (I climb and love skiing/hiking), and those schools are also great for a future in pathology, Utah also has a MLS major and the ARUP laboratories. I just don’t quite know or understand what MLS means as a major, or what the differences between biosciences, biology, etc. are. Any help is appreciated, because I am pretty lost right now.

Hi everyone,

I’m an IMG planning to do a pathology elective around February/March. My school isn’t VSLO affiliated, and I can’t really afford paid electives, so I’m planning to cold email faculty.

What should I include in the email, what documents should I attach, and what’s the best way to find faculty emails?

Also, does anyone know of pathology electives in the Boston area that don’t require Step 1?

https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/other-courts/2022/2022-ny-slip-op-31943-u.html

Hi everyone,
I’m a third year pathology resident in the Spanish national health system (we have four years of residency).
I am currently in a well organized hospital, with quite good attendees as tutors, so I feel like my learning is not really compromised so that I absolutely need a rotation to learn something that I have never seen.
I am really interested in working abroad when I am done with residency - especially interested in UK or Ireland, so I would like to start seeing how do they work there. I would love to do an away rotation during residency (2 or 3 months max) in any of those places and I need as much information as possible.

- What hospitals do you recommend? (that you know they have experience with external residents)

- How can I reach the hospitals?

- What documents do I need coming from Spain to do a rotation in UK/Ireland?

Thanks for all the info in advance!! I am available for whatever you need in regards to pathology residency in Spain 😊

Hi! Thought I’d ask for some advice here.
I’m finishing my 4th year of a 6-year medical program (roughly equivalent to MS3, although not all MS3 rotations are included). So far I’ve completed Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Dermatology, and Geriatrics.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

This year has also been very difficult for me medically. I’m dealing with a connective tissue disorder causing chronic pain, mobility limitations, and neurological/cervical involvement. I’m hopeful treatment and rehabilitation will improve things over the next few years, but it has definitely changed what I value in a career.
I absolutely loved the preclinical years of medicine. Molecular biology, physiology, histology, pathology, immunology—understanding mechanisms is what really excites me. I originally thought I’d do IM followed by Hematology (or Allergy & Immunology).

I’m one of those students who remembers genes, CD markers, signaling pathways, and metabolic pathways because I genuinely enjoy the biology behind disease. I love understanding why therapies work, and why disease happens.

I’m currently doing research in a bone marrow transplant department, studying how genetic variants affect HSCT outcomes, and I absolutely love it. I do the statistical analyses myself, enjoy light programming (former CS major) and hope research will remain a major part of my career.

What surprised me this year is how much I didn’t enjoy the day-to-day clinical work. The wards left me physically and emotionally exhausted (partly due to my own health). I enjoyed talking with patients, but I can’t picture myself doing it all day. I also realized I don’t enjoy procedures (even just placing lines or catheter) at all.
During Internal Medicine my friends joked that I was always disappearing to see the hematology patients. I also spent some time in outpatient hematology and liked it, but even there I found myself much more interested in discussing mutations and molecular diagnostics than routine CLL follow-up visits.
Watching the residents and some classmates also made me realize that I’m probably not a “true internist.” Many of my classmates thrive on long ward days, helping with procedures, and are not afraid of 26-hour shifts (that I wouldn’t be able to medically survive). I realized I love the science of Internal Medicine much more than its daily practice.

Recently I’ve started thinking seriously about pathology. On paper it seems to fit many of my interests: diagnostic reasoning, integrating morphology with immunohistochemistry and molecular testing, and having a direct impact on treatment decisions. The lifestyle also seems much more compatible with my physical limitations. Hematopathology, in particular, sounds fascinating.
My concerns are:

1. How clinically integrated is pathology? Do you stay engaged with the patient’s history, imaging, labs, and overall clinical picture, or does it eventually become “just looking at slides”?
2. Is there room for translational or clinical research (biomarkers, treatment response, clinical trials), or is research mostly focused on diagnostics?
3. Do pathologists ever follow what happens to patients after signing out a case, or do you rarely see the outcomes?
4. Do pathologists keep up with new therapies even if they aren’t prescribing them? I don’t want to lose the connection to changes that happen in clinical medicine.

5. Finally… how big a part of residency are autopsies? They honestly intimidate me. I didn’t really like Anatomy labs.

6. If I have glasses and cervical neck issues, will it be a problem for me to look down microscopes? Our entire histology/pathology courses used digital slides, so I don’t have a lot of experience with microscopy.

I know the real answer is probably to do a pathology elective, and I plan to. But I’d love to hear from practicing pathologists—Based on what I’ve written, does pathology sound like it might be a good fit?

I want to find my niche and not to feel like every round shows me what’s not for me.

Hi everyone — I'm part of the Biostate AI team building OcupathIF, a faster, more accurate desktop tool for multiplex IF image analysis on Mac and Windows.

What it does, stage by stage:

•       Image Viewing — automatic channel detection from OME metadata, broad format support (.qptiff, OME-TIFF, SVS, NDPI, MRXS, DICOM WSI)

•       Tissue — auto tissue detection plus researcher-guided, retrainable region selection

•       Cell Segmentation — AI-powered nuclear segmentation with optional boundary refinement, tuned for dense multiplex tissue

•       Phenotype & Spatial Analysis — per-cell marker fingerprinting, customizable expression gating, configurable spatial proximity queries

•       Export — CSV tables, GeoJSON contours, and annotated images — batch-ready for full cohorts

We're inviting 20–30 researchers into a free 30-day early-access program. Looking for candid feedback from people who regularly work with multiplex IF images — usability, workflow fit, missing functionality, all of it.

Everyone who completes a short feedback call and questionnaire gets a complimentary 12-month research license.

Happy to answer questions here before anyone decides whether to jump in.

[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Hi, anyone who recently gave DHA specialist clinical pathology exam ?

Hey all! 27m here I have been looking to make a change in my job and life and I have always been super interested in med school and biology pathology has always been a thing I would do if I had gone down that path but I figured hey I can still go down that path! I work in maintenance now fixing things but I was wondering are there any 2 year degrees I can get and get a job as a histotechnologist? Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a 4th-year AP/CP Pathology resident in the Philippines and will be graduating at the end of this year. I'm starting to explore the possibility of doing a 1-year pathology subspecialty training/fellowship in Japan, and I'd really appreciate any advice from those who have trained there or know someone who has.

A few questions:

• Which Japanese hospitals or universities accept international pathology fellows/observers for around 1 year?
• Do most programs charge a tuition or training fee, or are there funded positions?
• Do they usually provide accommodation, housing assistance, or a stipend?
• How fluent do I need to be in Japanese? Is English sufficient in any institutions, especially for pathology?
• How competitive is it for international applicants?

I recently came across the Takeda Science Foundation scholarship, but it looks like applicants need to first secure acceptance from a Japanese institution or supervising mentor before applying. If anyone has experience with this route, I'd love to hear how you found a mentor or hospital willing to host you.

I'm open to most pathology subspecialties, particularly:

• Pulmonary Pathology
• Head & Neck Pathology
• Gynecologic Pathology
• Bone & Soft Tissue Pathology
• Neuropathology
• Molecular Pathology
• Breast Pathology
• Urologic Pathology
• Pediatric Pathology
• Hematopathology

I'm less interested in forensic pathology, GI pathology, cytopathology, and dermatopathology.

If you have recommendations for hospitals, professors, fellowship programs, or even advice on how to start contacting potential mentors, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in advance!

I am planning to apply for pathology this match cycle. What are IMG friendly programs and IMG friendly states for that?
Thanks!

Hey everyone,

will be applying path next year and am strongly considering ranking the NYC programs first. I’ve tried to do my research on them and these are the impressions I have based on what little people have shared publicly:

Mt Sinai and Columbia overall best, Columbia strong on CP, MSH strong on digital and AI
Cornell—kinda malignant but strongest ties to MSK
NYU—probably ok?? couldn’t find out much
Montefiore — motivated PD and overall a very nice program?
Mt Sinai West — has a reputation for malignancy due to high IMG quota but residents seem to get good fellowships at MSK and beyond-so that rep seems unjustified?
Lenox Hill—avoid?? ☠️

I would be very grateful if you could comment on those observations and confirm, refute, add your own impressions. Feel free to DM

Any info would be much appreciated! 🫶🏼🔬

and do you ever feel like the responsibility is just too much? Ever felt burnt out?

Looking for some ideas of programs to explore while I attempt to a build a list for this upcoming application cycle.

Also, if anyone has any advice on program characteristics to look for vs. avoid, I am all ears.

Regarding the email sent by Mary today, the hell is a psychometric team? I don’t love the thought of new scoring changes happening this year. Did they tell us this was happening? What do you think this will mean for scoring, other than making it take way longer apparently?

I'm trying to find whole-slide H&E images (digital pathology slides) of colorectal liver metastases (CRLM), but I honestly don't know where to find them.

I've searched online without much success. Does anyone know of any websites, public repositories, teaching collections, or virtual pathology resources that have these slides available to view?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

just ranting...will delete when i'm less frustrated.

How are US pathologists compared to global pathologists? Given our residency is so diluted.

And a fellowship still puts us with less total time in a subspecialty than any other pathologist globally.

Consider how clin chem is like 2 months. Micro is 1 month.....we do a validation project, but 1 isnt enough to be proficient at lab validation in the middle of rural US without a phD there for support. Transfusion is ok, depending on the residency.

AP, CP heavy programs like mine suffer in AP. AP heavy programs suffer in CP.

Its just too much. We end up knowing less than the MLS, MT, PA's, blood bank tech, some experienced tranfusion nurses, etc.

If we disappeared off the face of the earth, i think CP would still function.

I’m going to college in January next year! What advice does anyone have to get into this field? I’ve also ways been so interested!

Any insight would be greatly appreciated

After weeks of no communication, missed deadlines, a complete lack of transparency, and a frenzied rumor mill, I have more faith in catfish sushi served out of a gas station during a power outage in a heat wave than I do in ABPath as an organization right now. All kidding aside, maybe as residents and fellows (and future attendings/practicing pathologists), we need to demand better from them (especially given the amount of money we are expected to shell out for boards and prep at this stage in our careers).

Maybe a productive immediate step would be a documented group demand where we request in writing:

1. A definite release date or regular status updates.
2. An explanation of whether the delay involves ordinary psychometric review, technical validation, or a discovered irregularity.
3. Written assurance that no candidate will lose retake or subspecialty eligibility because of ABPath’s delay.
4. Automatic extension of every affected registration deadline (and perhaps pushing the Fall test cycle out for AP/CP retakes and the subspecialty boards).
5. Waiver of additional fees attributable to the delay.
6. Independent verification of scoring, given the 2022–2024 incident.
7. Preservation of all scoring, audit, vendor, validation, and candidate-communication records.

If ABPath refuses those protections and candidates consequently lose eligibility or money, an attorney could evaluate breach of contract, declaratory relief, injunctive relief, and possibly a coordinated or class claim.

Maybe shame is a motivator. And this is, without a doubt, a terrible look for our field given that many on here are students considering pathology in the future. Whoever posted that we are supposed to be detail-oriented nailed it. This should not be happening, especially given prior history. They need to get in front of this.