Objective:

Argue that pathology explanation clinics—where pathologists discuss findings directly with patients—deserve recognition as part of pathology’s ongoing evolution.

Approach:

• Personal experience: The author recounts a pathologist explaining a digitized slide and diagnosis in plain language, prompting the question of why such conversations are not more common.
• Examples of existing clinics: The author names Mayo Clinic locations in Rochester and Florida, Duke Health, Tufts Medical, Endeavor Health, and Michigan Medicine as institutions with pathology explanation clinics.
• Proposed value: The author argues that these clinics can support patient understanding, agency, and engagement; increase pathologist visibility and purpose; ease ordering physicians’ report-interpretation burden; and strengthen patient and institutional satisfaction and loyalty.

Key Findings:

• The author reports that some institutions have incorporated pathology explanation clinics into their care models.
• The author argues that direct explanations from pathologists can reduce patients’ fear and confusion and help them participate in discussions about their care.
• The author argues that these clinics can ease ordering physicians’ burden of interpreting technical reports and strengthen patient and institutional satisfaction and loyalty.

Interpretation:

The author frames patient-facing pathology clinics as a developing chapter in the specialty’s evolution, extending the pathologist’s role beyond laboratory diagnosis to direct communication with patients.

Limitations:

• The provided opinion piece presents no study methods, quantitative results, or comparative evidence for the benefits it describes.
• Claims about patient, institutional, and pathologist outcomes are the author’s assertions and are not supported by data in the provided text.

Conclusion:

The author suggests that pathology’s next chapter may include pathologists explaining diagnostic findings directly to patients.

Sources:

• Opinion article in The Pathologist, supplied as context