senor_immuno Posted March 13, 2011 Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 Does anyone have any news on why so many pathology programs didn't fill any spots this year? I'm wondering especially about Ottawa and neuropath at UBC and Calgary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blinknoodle Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 I heard there weren't that many applicants to pathology this year, which means empty seats somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantbreathe Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Why is this a surprise? Path is never a popular choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darla Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Does anyone have any news on why so many pathology programs didn't fill any spots this year? I'm wondering especially about Ottawa and neuropath at UBC and Calgary. Agree with the fewer applicants. We're being screened to be compassionate people friendly docs in our interviews. When we consider going into path, it goes against the "I want contact with people" feelings that we have. Also, I'm not sure how it is at other schools, but here histology gets a back seat in most lectures. We don't get a lot of exposure to pathology making it more difficult to see it as a future career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DubZteR Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 Does anyone have any news on why so many pathology programs didn't fill any spots this year? I'm wondering especially about Ottawa and neuropath at UBC and Calgary. job situation in path isn't all that great right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 As stated above, lack of exposure and stereotypes about the specialty not being people-oriented. Yes, there is a lack of patient contact, but pathologists deal with co-workers and referring physicians, and managing a lab certainly requires people skills. As well, I've found a high sense of responsibility and awareness of how their work affects patients in all the pathologists I've worked with. They often have the final say on diagnosis - clinicians will look at imaging studies themselves much more often than they will look at path slides! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 Just noticed that the OP asked about neuropath as well. I think applicants may be deterred as it is so subspecialized, unless they are confident it is what they want to do. Often people may not even be decided between AP or GP, and programs which offer flexibility in switching between the branches of lab medicine have an advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hastin11 Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 It is an awesome career tho if you dont care about the reduced patient contact - all jobs selaried at 330k/year - no call or very very rare call - academic and problem solving, many varied and fascinating problems Im really surprised its not more popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monaco Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 How do you know which spots went unfilled? Sounds like it is a good situation for IMGs who want path though. EDIT: Oops, the info is on the Carms website. Only one unfilled IMG spot, but I wonder if some of the unfilled CMG spots will go to IMGs if there is not enough interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 It is an awesome career tho if you dont care about the reduced patient contact - all jobs selaried at 330k/year - no call or very very rare call - academic and problem solving, many varied and fascinating problems Im really surprised its not more popular. Do you happen to know what the annual overhead costs are in path? And what the work hours are like other than the fact that there is no call? Sorry I'm a newb with this stuff, starting to poke around and try to find some of the info on my own but it is MUCH more comforting to hear it from other people Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Do you happen to know what the annual overhead costs are in path? And what the work hours are like other than the fact that there is no call? Sorry I'm a newb with this stuff, starting to poke around and try to find some of the info on my own but it is MUCH more comforting to hear it from other people Thanks! isn't pathology normally on salary? There would be no overhead in that case - certain a lot of them on salary in Ontario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peachy Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 It's not totally clear why there was a drop off, but radiology applications were down this year too, so it's possible the classes of 2011 are just more into patient contact & less into diagnostics than previous classes.Psychiatry was down significantly this year -- so I don't buy that it was just a group that wanted tons of patient contact! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebouque Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Pathologists definitely have calls, even though it's very very light. They can go to the hospital for frozens, or perform autopsies on week ends when their week is too busy or when an autospy has to be done quickly (it happens mostly for legal reasons). Also pathologists who work in a transplant team have a lot more call. Finally, they can answer questions than clinicians or supporting staff has about preserving tissues before sending them to a lab (ie: what fluid should a small skin biopsy be put in). I'm just talking about anatomic pathology here. There might be calls for other reasons for those who choose general pathology (and who cover some heme, microbio or chemistry). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 isn't pathology normally on salary? There would be no overhead in that case - certain a lot of them on salary in Ontario Makes sense lol! Any idea on hours, is it like Derm where you can end up with a 9-5 or 830-430 week normally (with the exception of whatever on-call duty you have to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheech10 Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 All of those are exceedingly rare. Frozen sections, mainly on cancer surgeries, are almost always done during regular working hours. Very few autopsies are done these days at all, and again, almost always are done during weekdays (a couple that I have asked for on Friday nights waited until Tuesday morning). Fluid preservation questions are answered by the lab/path techs. And I'm not sure why transplants should cause after hours work; having worked in the largest transplant centre in Canada, we don't send any sections from the donor organ for path, and the old/diseased organ can wait until weekdays. None of my path colleagues has had to be in hospital after hours for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gametime24 Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 Pathologists definitely have calls, even though it's very very light. They can go to the hospital for frozens, or perform autopsies on week ends when their week is too busy or when an autospy has to be done quickly (it happens mostly for legal reasons). Also pathologists who work in a transplant team have a lot more call. Finally, they can answer questions than clinicians or supporting staff has about preserving tissues before sending them to a lab (ie: what fluid should a small skin biopsy be put in).I'm just talking about anatomic pathology here. There might be calls for other reasons for those who choose general pathology (and who cover some heme, microbio or chemistry). Thanks for the info, I'm looking more into dermpath, a couple of anatomical path fellowships, and either neuropath or ophthalmic pathology atm. As well as a whole host of other specialties... but I've got quite some time to decide and I imagine rotations in med will help me decide Just getting an idea of the lifestyle in each specialty right now because that may help me narrow down what I will focus on with electives, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebouque Posted August 10, 2011 Report Share Posted August 10, 2011 All of those are exceedingly rare. Frozen sections, mainly on cancer surgeries, are almost always done during regular working hours. Very few autopsies are done these days at all, and again, almost always are done during weekdays (a couple that I have asked for on Friday nights waited until Tuesday morning). Fluid preservation questions are answered by the lab/path techs. And I'm not sure why transplants should cause after hours work; having worked in the largest transplant centre in Canada, we don't send any sections from the donor organ for path, and the old/diseased organ can wait until weekdays. None of my path colleagues has had to be in hospital after hours for years. You're right, and that's why I said calls were very very light. However, while it's true that hospital autopsies are getting extremely rare, but in Quebec (I can't speak for other provinces), a medical legal autopsy where there is no suspicion of homicide (eg: intoxication, suicide, autopsy for insurance etc) is done by a hospital pathologist. Therefore, even outside of the forensic rotation, path residents end up doing lots of autopsies, and there are attendings who don't work in forensics but who perform ''coroner autopsies'' (again when a homicide is not suspected; if it is it goes to forensics). As for transplants, they can be called for post transplant biospies (acute rejection, recurrent disease, infection etc). Sometimes you also have pretransplant biospy from the donor organ if there is a doubt that the organ is suboptimal and might not fully recover after the transplant. But it's true, in pathology call is extremely light, just not non existent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheech10 Posted August 11, 2011 Report Share Posted August 11, 2011 Those autopsies, at least in Ontario, are still usually done during normal working hours (M-F, 9-5), as are the post-transplant biopsies (which need to be fixed, so again there is no urgency). Two of my close friends are pathologists; neither has ever had to come in after hours (practicing for the past 5 years). They are still listed as being "on-call" though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBCStudent128 Posted August 15, 2011 Report Share Posted August 15, 2011 Makes sense lol! Any idea on hours, is it like Derm where you can end up with a 9-5 or 830-430 week normally (with the exception of whatever on-call duty you have to do? I'm wondering this too ! Pathology seems like such a great life-style specialty from what I'm hearing from this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoank Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hi Can anyone compare Edmonton, London, and Ottawa programs? Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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