The term pathology is something we all have heard all our lives, but how many of us know its importance? Almost every one of us have been to at least one pathology lab at least once in our lifetime.

So let’s understand, what is Pathology? The word “pathology” comes from two words “pathos” meaning suffering and “logos” meaning study of suffering respectively. It is a major field in the modern diagnosis and thus for overall treatment. In simple words, it can be referred as study of disease.

Almost all the hospitals, in India and the world depend upon accurate pathological reports. It basically acts as a junction between medicine and science, using the cutting edge technology of genetics for better diagnosis, screening and treatment. It is done primarily for the benefit of the patient and also to make the treatment procedure much smoother for doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals as well.

Several people actually believe that pathology is restricted to autopsy or more commonly known as post mortem and thus applicable for only the ones present in the morgue. However this notion is absolutely wrong, pathological screenings are carried out for disease which include, cough, blood, urine tests to biopsy for Cancer detection.

Pathology is a very wide branch and over 19 types of specializations coexist and all obviously pathologists doesn’t have the same work. Depending on their articular specializations, skill and interest, they work either in laboratories, hospitals, clinics or pathology centers. Often they provide valuable advice to the doctor and alongside decide for the best possible treatment in case of complicated diseases.

Out of the several specializations, the most significant are chemical pathology, hematology (diseases related to blood and its components), histopathology, medical microbiology (study of infections), toxicology, molecular genetics, Immunogenetics and histocompatibility. Apart from these, there are several more which has its own importance.

Apart from screening and identifying possible infection or severe diseases, pathology comes into play even during blood transfusion, blood storage, and organ storage. It is equally important during developing vaccines for several infections and diseases. Thus, any hospital with their own pathology lab is always a perk over the other who lack this feature.