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Not quite ready for prime time; Pathology can be fascinating, but not up to TV-show standards

By Jason Lee, Tribune Media Services, Source: Tribune Media Services

The CSI effect continues to spur interest in the pathologists' assistant program at North Chicago's Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

The TV dramas that follow the forensics-driven cases of big-city crime scene investigation teams is often mentioned in applications to the program – one of only seven of its kind in the nation.

While the field of pathology can definitely be fascinating, it bears little resemblance to the fantastical, glamorous CSI series, says John Vitale, director of the two-year program that leads to a master's degree in pathologists' assistant studies.

"I tell my students I've never done an autopsy with a colleague in high heels," Vitale says. "They show all these glorified cases, but the reality of a medical examiner's office is that the majority of cases are accidental deaths."

Even in glitzy locales such as Las Vegas and Miami, most homicides are relatively straight-forward cases. Real whodunits are rare.

"Many times the culprit may have been apprehended by the time of the autopsy," says Vitale, a Kenosha resident who trained in some of the nation's leading pathology departments, including those at Yale-New Haven and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Pathologists' assistants do help nab culprits, and not just human ones. Graduates of the Rosalind Franklin program become experts in anatomy and dissection. Whatever a surgeon removes from a body – a mass, a lesion, an organ – the pathologists' assistants selects which piece of tissue doctors will examine in the diagnosis.

"We're between the surgeon and the pathologist," Vitale said. "We function as the eyes of pathologists in the lab."

Pathology has a connection to nearly every aspect of medicine. A pathologists' assistant is a member of a health care team and plays a central role in communication, constantly exchanging information with surgeons, oncologists and other health care professionals.

Brandi Woodard of Gurnee, Ill., a graduate and clinical coordinator of the program, says it takes a "special personality to do this job."

"You have the patient's life pretty much in your hands," Woodard says. "It's an incredible responsibility, and it takes a mature person to take it on. If you like a challenge, this is a great field for you."

Surgical pathology labs in hospitals are often bustling places, with nurses and surgeons coming and going, delivering specimens, reporting on operations, sometimes staying to watch pathologists' assistants dissect and describe tissue.

"It's a really vibrant environment," Vitale says. "Much less stressful and dramatic than being in the operating room. Although we're making life and death decisions – if we miss a lesion a patient could end up dying – we're not under the same pressure as keeping a patient alive, managing them in surgery."

Pathologists assistants also perform autopsies, usually in hospitals. The program emphasizes the need to respect the dignity of patients at all times.

"One of the big things is to educate the physicians and other healthcare professionals," Vitale says. "Whenever someone dies, especially in the hospital, there's usually some lesson to be learned."

Experienced pathologists' assistants can earn between $80,000 to $100,000 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

© 2009, Tribune Media Services