Bob Schoonhoven notes the deficiency in pathologists' training in histologic 
technique.

Pathology residents learn to do what they're required to do. In my residency 
no histotech ever touched a cryostat - not only we did all the frozen 
sections, but we did all the cleaning and minor maintenance. As a senior 
resident I could field strip and clean one of the Damon-IEC cryostats (many 
of those models are still in use - saw an early 1960's model still running as 
a backup last week) - not sure I could still pull out a microtome, but I sure 
could then.

A few years earlier, my residency had stopped requiring residents to do their 
own special stains, because it became impractical to provide the enlarged lab 
facilities required. (I learned to do most of them the year I spent as a 
histochemistry research fellow.) For a couple of years I gave a series of 
lectures on the standard special stains - what they worked and what they 
looked like - with a lovely collection of 35 mm slides to accompany it - but 
I doubt the lectures were an adequate substitute for hands-on and eyes-on 
experience.

Pathology residencies have grown much too long, and it's time to stop 
flogging the dead duck of clinical pathology. If pathology residencies are to 
be re-thought, I think that providing better training in technique - not only 
histology, but grossing technique and things like that - needs to be talked 
about.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN