What is a Pathologists’ Assistant

What is a Pathologists’ Assistant?

By Cherie Germain, Program Director—Pathologists’ Assistant Program

Pathologists’ Assistants (PAs) are mid-level health care professionals (analogous to Physician’s Associates) working in the Department of Pathology, specializing in surgical and autopsy pathology, under the supervision of a medical doctor, usually a Pathologist.

In addition to clinical duties, PAs are also trained for laboratory management, tissue banking, teaching at the university level didactically and clinically, quality management, and research.

In Surgical Pathology, Pathologists’ Assistants are responsible for:

• Dissection, description, and submission of tissue from surgical cases- this requires comprehensive knowledge of anatomy, surgical techniques, medical and pathology terminology, cancer protocols, and various dissection techniques.
• Accurate receipt and accessioning of surgical and autopsy pathology cases (requiring knowledge of laboratory information systems and laboratory accrediting regulations).
• Supervision and management of the surgical and autopsy areas (requiring knowledge of clinical laboratory management).
• Ordering of special laboratory and radiologic testing as appropriate for the pathology present (requiring the ability to recognize normal tissue and abnormal conditions including cancer and benign pathologies, and application of appropriate special testing).
• The ability to perform a stat frozen section procedure to produce a diagnostic slide within a given time period.
• Communication with surgeons, pathologists, and ancillary medical staff (requiring excellent interpersonal skill, patience, compassion, and a good knowledge base of management, medicine, and pathology).
• Biomedical photography of specimens (requiring knowledge of specific techniques for various specimens).

Our job is interesting and challenging, where every day is different! It is a career path that has lots of opportunities for variety and lifelong learning.

In the Autopsy area, Pathologists’ Assistants are responsible for:

• Ensuring correct patient identification prior to the beginning of the procedure (requiring knowledge of why this is important, institutional, state, and federal regulations and accrediting body requirements).
• The ability to correlate the patient medical history with autopsy findings (requiring comprehensive knowledge of medical and pathologic terminology, SOAP reporting, and medical information systems).
• Performance of the autopsy procedure from the external examination, evisceration techniques, dissection of organs or organ systems, and description of findings to the submission of appropriate tissues which allows the pathologist to make an accurate final diagnosis (requiring extensive knowledge of anatomy, autopsy techniques, and the ability to recognize normal and abnormal anatomy and pathology)
• Formation of a preliminary anatomic diagnosis and autopsy report in collaboration with the attending pathologist (requiring the ability to correlate gross findings with knowledge of pathology and disease mechanisms).

If you are interested in becoming a Pathologists’ Assistant, University of Jamestown offers a Pathologists’ Assistants program. It is a two-year master’s degree program housed in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more and apply today.