essential opportunity for him to develop the necessary skills
to contribute and compete in an ever-changing health care
environment.
“If I don’t gain these skills, I become irrelevant,” Can-
gelosi says. “We need to continue to find ways to create
visibility and provide value to patients. We need to continue
to develop skill sets — especially in clinical, molecular and
informatics — that will allow us to contribute beyond the
diagnosis and into treatment. We need to continue to cul-
tivate collaborative relationships with clinical colleagues,
building trust and confidence. We need to maintain the right
attitude and grow the necessary confidence to integrate our-
selves as a valued member of the health care team.”
Valdes says pursuing these opportunities starts with the
right attitude: believing that these changes are real and
understanding how they affect pathologists individually and
collectively.
“Then we have to make a personal commitment to do
something about it — to be willing to embrace change, willing to change the way we do our jobs. Otherwise, we put the
pathologist’s role as a physician at risk,” she says.
The Data Doctors
CCAP is approaching this effort like a pathologist would: by
seeking data to support a “diagnosis and treatment plan.”
The better CAP understands the mindset and needs of its
stakeholders — other physicians, administrators, regulators,
insurers and patients — the more successful it will be, Roussel says.
To learn more about these mindsets and needs, four
online surveys were conducted in early 2010. These surveys
targeted more than 600 non-pathologist physicians, such as
primary care physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists,
OB/GYNs, oncologists, surgeons and other specialists, and
more than 700 non-physicians who manage health care.
The survey confirmed that for most physicians, pathology
services equal a report; very few regularly consult directly
with pathologists. Moreover, only 55 percent of non-pathologist physicians believe pathologists are expert diagnosticians.
Overall, patients have a minimal understanding of the
level of pathologists’ involvement in their care; the majority do not associate diagnosis or treatment decisions with
pathologists.
What is clear, however, is that patients want more involvement in their health care decisions. Seven percent of adults
keep personal health records, double the amount from 2008;
61 percent of adults consult the web for health information;
about 20 percent of these “e-patients” look to social network-
Behind the Microscope
Pathology is the medical specialty that provides
the scientific foundation for just about all medical practice. Pathologists often may be unseen
by patients, but they serve a vital — and sometimes heroic — role as diagnosticians, teachers and investigators. They are physicians who
obtain and interpret data as the result of the
examination of tissues, blood and other body
fluids for diagnosis and patient care. CAP members are involved in a broad range of disciplines,
including surgical pathology, cytopathology, der-matopathology, neuropathology, forensic pathology, blood banking/transfusion medicine, clinical
chemistry, microbiology, immunopathology,
hematology, genetics and molecular pathology,
which in lay terms means analyzing Pap tests,
evaluating cancer and cancer-related conditions
— including those affecting the breast, colon,
lung and skin — diabetes diagnosis, cholesterol
testing and much more. They work in a variety
of laboratory settings, from complex university
medical centers to physician office laboratories.
