Pathology and the anatomical sciences bridge the basic sciences and clinical medicine. Anatomical sciences deals with understanding the structure and function of the body, and pathology deals with all aspects of human disease. Pathology and anatomical sciences is the department in the School of Medicine that teaches and conducts research in the anatomy, cell biology, pathology and laboratory medicine.
Faculty in the anatomical sciences conduct research and teach about the normal cells and structures that make up the human body. Courses are offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and students may work with individual faculty to conduct research and obtain advanced degrees. Using cadavers and excavated anatomical specimens, the faculty help develop a better understanding of the human body, and teach students who are learning about the human body.
Faculty in pathology function in three broad areas: as investigators, as teachers, and as diagnosticians. As diagnosticians, pathologists work in hospital and laboratory settings, developing and applying knowledge of tissue and laboratory analyses, consulting with other physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients. As teachers, they impart this knowledge of disease to their medical colleagues, to trainees at all levels, and to medical students. As scientists, they use the tools of laboratory science in clinical studies, disease models, and other experimental systems, to advance the understanding and treatment of disease.
Pathology has a special appeal to those who enjoy solving disease-related problems, using laboratory technologies based upon fundamental sciences ranging from biophysics to molecular genetics, and including tools from the more traditional disciplines of anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and microbiology.
About one million patient samples are processed each year in the University of Missouri Health Sciences Center's well-equipped clinical pathology laboratories. The staff in the Anatomic-Pathology Laboratory processes 15,000 surgical specimens each year, performs 680 postmortem exams and reviews 19,300 cytology specimens.
The department offers courses to undergraduate, graduate and medical students. Faculty members participate as lecturers, lab instructors and group leaders in the School of Medicine's problem-based curriculum and as preceptors in introduction to patient care courses. Pathologists also participate in patient-care conferences and direct the combined anatomic and clinical pathology residency training program. In addition, they work in surgical and cellular pathology laboratories and perform autopsies.
The department offers several four- or eight-week electives for medical students: anatomical/surgical pathology, cytopathology, neuropathology, renal pathology, clinical microbiology, transfusion medicine, clinical chemistry, cytogenetics, electron microscopy, hematology, toxicology and therapeutic drug monitoring. Students set objectives with the supervision of a pathologist at the beginning of each rotation.
