The Clinical Pathologist as Consultant and Teacher

Abstract

The practice of clinical pathology offers to the physician an unusual opportunity. It keeps him in intimate touch with disease in all its phases. It is a stimulus to medical research. It is scientific and accurate beyond the science of history taking or physical diagnosis. It is one of the most valuable aids to modern medical practice. American physicians are fortunate to have the assurance that the practice of clinical pathology is being maintained on a high This quotation from an editorial which appeared in a recent number of the Journal of the American Medical Association carries with it a ringing challenge to the members of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists to strive vigorously to make the field of clinical pathology an even greater asset to the practice of modern medicine. To those who nurtured this Society in its infancy these words of praise should provide recompense for their relentless efforts to elevate the practice of clinical pathology to its present high plane. A decade ago, when the idealism of Ward Burdick created this Society, the field of clinical pathology was an ill-defined territory in medical practice. In fact, during the first few years of the Society's growth some difficulty was encountered in arriving at a satisfactory definition of a clinical pathologist. Today, the clinical pathologist is recognized as a consulting physician whose chief interest lies in the diagnosis of disease by laboratory methods. There may be a few persons who still think of the clinical pathologist as a glorified, overpaid technician. If there remains