How do you get to be a pathologist?

Dr Catherine Koleda talks about how you can become a pathologist. If you have an interest in learning about science, you might make a good pathologist, too.

Dr Koleda was employed by Wellington Hospital when this video was made.

Transcript

DR CATHERINE KOLEDA
To become a pathologist you need to become a doctor first, so you need to want to do that, and you need to want to study hard, you need to like reading textbooks, you need to like meeting people and you need to like learning about the body.

Pathology really is a science based subject and so its important to understand the scientific basis of disease. Biology is a very important aspect of that although chemistry and physics do - can come into it. There are various different types of pathology, I am an anatomical pathologist, that means I look down the microscope at cells and tissues but some people might choose to become chemical pathologists where they look at the composition of blood. So any science based form of study is a good basis for going into pathology. But because anatomical pathology is very visual and descriptive I think that doing English or the humanities can also be a helpful inroad. Arts and humanities because of the picture nature of pathology and also the descriptive nature of it are also of benefit. So I don't think you need to restrict yourself.

Acknowledgements:
Capital & Coast District Health Board
Louise Goossens, Wellington School of Medicine