Experimental Pathology Ph.D. programs produce basic scientists whose interests lie in the study of disease processes. In no other fundamental area of biomedical research is there a greater potential for dynamic interaction between basic and clinical scientists. There is, however, a gap that exists in the application of this new understanding to human diseases. The increasing complexity of both clinical medicine and basic research is making this gap between knowledge and application increasingly difficult to bridge. Few clinicians can maintain an extensive basic research effort because of limitations in training and the need to stay at the forefront of patient diagnosis and treatment.
Many basic scientists have little knowledge about the pathology of human disease.
Yet, an understanding of the fundamental processes involved in disease is essential to keeping these clinical activities on the cutting edge. This situation creates a great need for basic scientists conversant in clinical problems and interested in human disease. Pathology is ideally situated to provide such training because this discipline is naturally positioned at the interface between basic science and clinical medicine. Thus clinical observations can readily provide the substrate and impetus for basic investigations of disease mechanisms. Consequently, this group of scientists and physician-scientists is in a unique position to provide graduate students with the background in disease processes needed to attack critical questions of human disease.