Finding Free Information on the Latest Trends in Pathology

It occasionally comes as a shower thought how much technology has made it so convenient to share information around the world. How can you not be amazed at the speed and accessibility of information thanks to the internet. It’s even more pronounced due to quarantine measures as organizers now resort to remote lectures. Whenever someone from the department group chat shares a link to the upcoming pathology related seminars, a quick buzz pops and then dies out as fast as the shared link came.

Upon the advice of my consultant, I was referred to watch some videos from PathCast. It’s a YouTube channel that features hour long teaching sessions about the latest trends on Pathology for free. It’s not like the wheel was reinvented but this small detail made it game changing that you can review the videos at your convenient time where most lectures tend to have no replay buttons. The work doesn’t stop when the seminar’s happen live, if you got to cut some specimens or sign out some cases, you have to do it otherwise get penalized for a late turn around time.

The videos assume you already know the basics and insert supplemental info on the latest trends and common pitfalls of the subject.

You can also subscribe to some telegram groups that frequently keep an eye out for any upcoming seminars. I find this method the most annoying to keep your notifications on as there are a lot of buzz going. A friendly medical representative would also be eager to approach you about some seminars if it meant extra promotion of their products. Another method is just manually Googling the keywords and hope something hits if you're bored (I don't do this but I know some colleagues who have a lot of spare time do).

Ain’t nobody got time for those seminars especially when piled up with work but it’s free and the topic is usually interesting so we got to make time to at least see it live. The problem with online seminars conducted in the US is how convenient it is to sleep on it during the lecture. It’s bed time around my time zone and if the seminar goes for an entire day, that would simply mean 8pm to 4am in my time zone. I guess it’s fair game as some of the lectures I attend are based in Hong Kong or South Korea. I can imagine what a drag that would be for colleagues on another side of the world trying to stay awake.

Naturally, one would ask whether the information being taught is legit. You’d know the people behind based on the credentials they flash at the beginning and some information to validate the info being taught. In a world where crackpot nutty professors can make their mumbo jumbo claims online, it’s fairly easy to put an MD on a title and insert a well known institution to make one look legit. Most normies just fall for the MD title and forget that they’re consuming information online.

A professional in their field and a layperson can Google the same subject but not look at the information the same way as it is presented. It’s also true when it comes to how clinicians and pathologists would tackle the same subject. Each discipline has their own ruling criteria and protocol to approach the subject based on their field’s point of view.

So while Pathologist can say this tumor can be graded 2 or 3, a clinician can just not mind the grading pattern as the management can be the same for both grades. For academic’s sake, that grade 3 may show a slightly different prognosis but again, it’s not really going to impact the current treatment protocols the clinician may subscribe to. This is all hypothetical as the real world scenario is much more complex than that.

For those that just want to know the latest updates on Tumor classification, I recommend getting a subscription to WHO BlueBooks Online as this is one of the official resources used to diagnose a case for a yearly subscription. Just for kicks and giggles if you want to be a Google MD graduate, at least Google the official stuff.

Sharing you an image of a Thyroid section. The upper left still has the colloidal follicles that resemble the normal architecture but the central piece is the incidental finding of concern. You occasionally see these tissues included in the submitted specimen.

Just a mix of Chief (Blue ones) and Oxyphil (Pink cytoplasm) Cells from a Parathyroid gland. These are supposed to be left be if the procedure was just thyroidectomy but it can't be helped as they are hard to spot and can be mixed in the specimen during removal due to their tiny size.

The chief cells are the ones that produce parathyroid hormones that keeps your calcium levels high or at normal range. On the other hand, the oxyphil cells have unclear functions. Just sharing for a trivia.

If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.

Posted with STEMGeeks