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Pathology is involved in over 70% of all diagnoses made in the NHS and the laboratory team at the James Paget contribute significantly on-site to biochemistry, haematology and blood transfusion.
In a recent survey, over two thirds of people thought that pathologists worked only with the dead, but while some pathologists do perform post mortem examinations many more work in laboratories, in clinics and on hospital wards to help with the diagnosis and treatment of patients.
The professional scientists that perform these services are known as BioMedical Scientists (BMS). Every time a patient has a blood test, or a swab/sample taken for culture, a cervical smear or a lump removed, it’s a BMS who looks at the specimen or analyses it to work out if there is any disease present or not.
Pathology is the study of disease and there are many different specialties within the field including chemical pathology – the study of the biochemical basis of disease; haematology – the study of disorders of the blood; histopathology – the study of disease in human tissue; and medical microbiology/virology – the study of infection.
