clinical pathology clinical pathology clinical pathology is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the laboratory analysis of bodily fluids, such as blood, urine, and tissue homogenates or extracts using the tools of chemistry, microbiology, hematology, molecular pathology, and immunohaematology. this specialty requires a medical residency. hematology: blood smears on a glass slide, stained and ready to be examined under the microscope. bacteriology: agar plate with bacterial colonies. bacteriology: microscopic image of a mixture of two types of bacteria stained with the gram stain. clinical chemistry: an automated blood chemistry analyser. clinical pathology is a term used in the us, uk, ireland, many commonwealth countries, portugal, brazil, italy, japan, and peru; countries using the equivalent in the home language of "laboratory medicine" include austria, germany, romania, poland and other eastern european countries; other terms are "clinical analysis" (spain) and "clinical/medical biology (france, belgium, netherlands, north and west africa). licensing and subspecialities the american board of pathology certifies clinical pathologists, and recognizes the following secondary specialties of clinical pathology: chemical pathology, also called clinical chemistry hematopathology blood banking - transfusion medicine clinical microbiology cytogenetics molecular genetics pathology. in some countries other sub specialities fall under certified clinical biologists responsibility: reproductive biology including assisted reproductive technology, sperm bank and semen analysis immunopathology organization clinical pathologists are often medical doctors. in some countries in south-america, europe, africa or asia, this specialty can be practiced by non-physicians, such as ph.d. or pharm.d. after a variable number of years of residency. in united states of america clinical pathologists work in close collaboration with clinical scientists (clinical biochemists, clinical microbiologists, etc.), medical technologists, hospital administrators, and referring physicians to ensure the accuracy and optimal utilization of laboratory testing. clinical pathology is one of the two major divisions of pathology, the other being anatomical pathology. often, pathologists practice both anatomical and clinical pathology, a combination sometimes known as general pathology. similar specialties exist in veterinary pathology. clinical pathology is itself divided into subspecialties, the main ones being clinical chemistry, clinical hematology/blood banking, hematopathology and clinical microbiology and emerging subspecialties such as molecular diagnostics and proteomics. many areas of clinical pathology overlap with anatomic pathology. both can serve as medical directors of clia certified laboratories. under the clia law, only the us department of health and human services approved board certified ph.d., dsc, or md and do can perform the duties of a medical or clinical laboratory director. this overlap includes immunoassays, flow cytometry, microbiology and cytogenetics and any assay done on tissue. overlap between anatomic and clinical pathology is expanding to molecular diagnostics and proteomics as we move towards making the best use of new technologies for personalized medicine. in europe recently, eflm has chosen the name of "specialists in laboratory medicine" to define all european clinical pathologists, regardless of their training (m.d., ph.d. or pharm.d.). in france, clinical pathology is called medical biology ("biologie médicale") and is practiced by both m.d.s and pharm.ds. the residency lasts four years. specialists in this discipline are called "biologiste médical" which literally translates as clinical biologist rather than "clinical pathologist". tools microscopes, analyzers, strips, centrifuges macroscopic examination the visual examination of the taken liquid is a first main indication for the pathologist or the physician. the aspect of the liquid, in addition, conditions the analytical assumption of responsibility that follow and the validity of the end-results. microscopical examination