YOU MOST LIKELY RECOGNIZE
your primary care
provider or specialty doctors when you see them outside
of their office. But, during a hospital stay, several other
doctors often play a vital role in making sure you leave
the hospital healthy. Do you know who they are and
what they do?
Let’s meet a few of these “behind the scenes” doctors
and learn why they chose to work in the fields of anes-
thesiology, pathology and radiology.
KENT GIDEON, MD, PATHOLOGIST
{
Describe what a pathologist is.
}
We are medical doctors who support the technical
staff in the lab and consult with clinicians with regard to
lab results. Primarily, pathologists read slides and make
diagnoses based on tissue material, whether from a bi-
opsy or tissue removed during surgery.
{
What’s a typical day like for you?
}
Well, there’s really no such thing as a “typical” day.
Surgery cases normally begin at 7:30 a.m., and a pa-
thologist has to be available to do frozen sections. This
takes place when the patient is still under anesthesia and
is done in a lab near the OR. We freeze the tissue and
cut sections that are 0.007 millimeters, or only one cell
thick, with a machine called a Cryostat. Once we have
the slide prepared, we look at it quickly and pass on our
diagnosis to the operating physician waiting in surgery.
Later in the morning, slides from tissue removed the
previous day are ready for us to read. In addition to the
pathology side, there are four different areas of the clinical
side of the lab: chemistry, hematology, blood bank and mi-
crobiology. We cover a broad spectrum—from diagnosing
types of cancer to detecting abnormalities in blood samples
or Pap tests. We are also responsible for the quality control
of the lab, which ensures that the results we are putting out
are a quality product. We spend the afternoon dissecting
tissue specimens for the next day’s slides.
{
Why did you choose to become a pathologist?
}
While we do not get to work directly with patients,
we do get to work with almost every doctor. A lot of what
we do as pathologists is dependent upon the informa-
tion we get from our colleagues. We want people to stay
healthy, but most of what we deal with is the abnormal.
We are contributing to the patient’s diagnosis and helping
start their journey to recovery.
DAVID VANCE, MD, ANESTHESIOLOGIST
{
Describe what an anesthesiologist is.
}
We are physicians that encompass the entire area
around surgery—we don’t just put you to sleep before sur-
gery and wake you up afterward. Our goal is to make sure
you are safe and as comfortable as possible.
Anesthesiologists are medical doctors that are also
trained to do obstetric, pediatric, cardiac and neurosurgi-
cal anesthesia. Anesthesia training involves a wide spec-
trum of medicine, including pain procedures and regional
anesthesia such as spinals, epidurals and nerve blocks.
{
What’s a typical day like for you?
}
We get here early in the morning. We make sure the
items and equipment we need are ready. Then I will go vis-
it my first patient for the day and get their entire medical
history. Afterward, a plan is devised for patients based
on their medical history and the procedure they are hav-
ing. There are multiple factors involved in the process,
and the plan is tailored specifically for each patient.
We are with patients throughout their entire surgery,
monitoring their vital signs such as blood pressure, heart
rate, how much oxygen is in their blood and their tem-
perature. After the surgeon is finished, we make sure the
patient is ready to be woken up and taken to recovery.
After that, we devise a plan with the recovery room nurse
based on the needs of the patient. Finally, the patient
moves up to a floor or the second phase of recovery where
they are monitored until they are ready to go home.
Additionally, we are on call and come to the hospital when
an emergency procedure is needed. These can be more dif-
ficult, because most often you don’t know anything about
the patients and they are very sick or have extreme trauma.
You are moving quickly and thinking on your feet while
working with the trauma team to help save the patient’s life.
{
Why did you choose to become an anesthesiologist?
}
I knew I wanted to be a physician, and the part of
anesthesiology I enjoy is working with patients one-on-
one. I’m with one patient at a time, I make sure they are
safe all the way through the surgery, and then I get to work
with another patient. And we also work with patients of
all ages—from newborn babies to the elderly. Surgery is a
stressful time for people, and we are responsible for mak-
ing sure our patient is as safe as possible and as comfort-
able as possible throughout the entire procedure.
ROSS HARPER, MD, RADIOLOGIST
{
Describe what a radiologist is.
}
A radiologist is a medical doctor who specializes
in using medical imaging technology, such as MRI
(magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomogra-
phy), x-ray, ultrasound and fluoroscopy, to help diagnose
and treat disease and injury. We are primarily behind
the scenes, but we have an important role in patient care,
working as a team with other physicians to help diag-
nose illness and make management decisions, based on
the imaging studies we perform.
I am an interventional radiologist, which means I spe-
cialize in using imaging technology to performminimally
invasive treatments. For example, we can use image guid-
ance to biopsy a lesion that may have otherwise required
the patient to have open surgery. This technique shortens
the amount of time the patient spends in the hospital, in-
creases efficiency and decreases the risk of complications.
{
What’s a typical day like for you?
}
We start the morning off by reading any studies that
came in overnight, such as those that happen in the emer-
gency room. Throughout the day we interact with physi-
cians from all specialties, discussing the findings and rec-
ommendations. This is balanced with any procedures that
are done, to ensure that we get our reports back to the phy-
sicians and, ultimately, the patients in a timely manner.
We read digital images using a computerized system,
which can be accessed from multiple locations at all
times. The system is quick for us to use, but it is ben-
eficial to patients as well. For example, we can look up
all the studies a patient has had and know if they have a
pre-existing illness.
{
What is gratifying to you about this specialty?
}
I particularly enjoy the patient interaction that is
provided when performing interventional radiology—
and at the Women’s Imaging Center with mammog-
raphy. It is gratifying to me that a patient understands
their diagnosis and the role radiology has in their care.
CARING BEHIND THE SCENES
A closer look at medical specialties
PICTURE PERFECT: Ross Harper, MD, reports findings
as he interprets a patient’s imaging study.
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H E A L T H
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