Pathology Groups Make Recommendations on Workforce Issues

Groups representing pathologists this week issued recommendations to help pathologists best meet patient needs in the future. The report is the outcome of the December 2013 Pathology Workforce Summit, sponsored by the College of American Pathologists (CAP), the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the Association of Pathology Chairs, and the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology. The summit identified five emerging issues that will impact the pathology workforce:

• A decreased supply of pathologists and laboratory professionals. The supply of pathologists and lab professionals will decrease substantially over the next 20 years.

• Changes in the demand for pathology services. The demand for pathology and lab services over the next 10 to 20 years will be affected by changes in population age and disease incidence.

• New factors requiring creative reconsideration of the nature of recruitment and training and advocacy for adequate resources. The number of new pathologists expected to graduate in the next 15 years is far below the number of pathologists expected to leave practice, and current approaches for training pathologists may not be addressing the changing needs for pathology practice.

• Workforce projections that must account for all members of the laboratory team. Laboratory professionals’ roles tend to be technically distinct and complementary, as opposed to being subsets, and therefore projections must account for each distinct need or member of the care team.

• Access to education and training opportunities. The availability of training programs will be critical in maintaining and developing an adequate supply of qualified pathologists and laboratory professionals.

In response to these issues, participants agreed on three key recommendations to address future workforce issues:

1. Reassessing what every pathologist needs to know and identifying new ways to ensure that adequate numbers of pathologists acquire both general skills and subspecialized expertise, especially in key emerging areas;
2. Organizing pathology to attract and recruit highly qualified medical and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students into pathology and laboratory professions; and
3. Re-evaluating long-term training expectations to propagate an outlook of lifelong learning to maintain or enhance career opportunities and applicability to current health care delivery systems and payment models.

Takeaway: Pathology and laboratory medicine must face and address a potential shortage of professionals expected over the next 20 years.