Clinical Pathology

Clinical Pathology came about because we felt that other pathology textbooks failed to provide students with a clear understanding of the pathology they need to know to practise clinical medicine. In particular there was a tendency to overemphasise the microscopic features of diseases, information more pertinent to specialist pathologists. To rectify this problem we wrote Clinical Pathology with the following key objectives:

• To produce a sensibly sized pathology textbook providing the information relevant to the vast majority of students who will go on to practise in a specialty other than pathology.
• To cover all common and important diseases, even those where pathologists themselves may play little role in their management.
• To integrate all the major pathology disciplines together into one book (cellular pathology, haematology, clinical biochemistry, microbiology, and immunology).
• To tackle common areas of misunderstanding, particularly terminology, head on rather than ignore them.
• To write in a friendly and engaging way in an attempt to make the subject enjoyable.

We hope we have gone some way to achieving these ambitious aims and welcome feedback from all our readers, particularly comments highlighting areas that may benefit from clarification in future editions. We can be contacted via the "ask the author" forum on the Online Resource Centre for Clinical Pathology.

James Carton and Richard Daly
April 2007