CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
Patrick Godbey, MD
December 2019—This time of year, it’s easy to find ourselves caught up in holiday planning and the challenges of managing a busy team’s hectic vacation schedule. But it is also the appropriate time to look ahead to the coming year and think about the opportunities as well as the challenges we should expect.
Dr. Godbey
Here’s what I can say for sure about next year and the years after that: The importance of pathologists and the laboratories that we direct will increase. Already, the majority of diagnoses and therapies are greatly influenced, if not outright dictated, by pathologists and our laboratories.
I have often heard various people in medicine say that 70 percent of all medical decisions are made owing to the laboratory. That may have been true at one time, but I strongly believe that number is too low. Many of the advances in modern medicine have taken place because of what has happened in pathologist-driven laboratories. We can generate more information, with more accuracy, that is more important to the care of the patient than ever before.
Much has come our way in the form of new technology. New systems can be intimidating, but it is essential that pathologists embrace them. Pathologists need to not only guide the performance of these technologies but also participate in the decisions on their use. We must not shy away from new advances—and there will always be new advances. More and more, we choose the pharmaceutical treatment for malignancies. Companion diagnostics make it possible to match the right patient to the right therapy through genetic analysis. In the future, our laboratories will continue to have the opportunity to bring in new assays. This is an exciting time to work in this field.
Our embrace of new technologies and tests means we have a real opportunity to embrace our increasing responsibility in health care and to be recognized for it also. It is no longer enough for pathologists to just diagnose patients. We can and must do so much more. Our role now involves the diagnosis, management, and treatment of the patient.