Pathologists’ Knowledge, Experience, and Judgment in Diagnostic Error Prevention (Pathologists’ Competence)

Making a diagnosis in surgical pathology is dependent on a pathologist’s knowledge, experience, and judgment. In this chapter, pathologists’ training and certification are addressed as well as how they are evaluated to be competent. Furthermore, the systems are in place that address how pathologists’ skills are measured throughout their carrier to assure their ongoing competence is examined. There are intrinsic problems with defining errors, but these problems are not insurmountable, and ultimately a system can be devised to show that pathologists can be compared and judgments made on competence.