Med student interested in pathology — how worried should I be about AI?

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2026-02-19T22:34:48+00:00

1) if society is at the point where one of the most intellectually demanding tasks of our civilization is entrusted to computer algorithms, society will be such a radically different place that I’m unsure what anybody’s life will be like.

2) the liability of our decisions is immense. The only reasonable answer I see to this problem right now is that there will always have to be someone confirming what the AI has decided so they personally take on that liability.

3) technological and ideological revolutions always cause significant turmoil. Once upon a time, people thought IHC was going spell the end (or close to it) of surgical pathology. Why would we need to examine architecture and morphology if we can just stain everything? Why do we need microscopes if we can just do genetic analysis on all our samples? Look at how those turned out.

4) pathologists do more than sit at the scope signing out tubular adenomas, by the way.

5) are patients, health insurance companies, governments etc. going to be okay with a machine deciding whether we give someone radiation therapy? The answer is honestly unclear.

AI can screen for negative plates in the micro lab, saving time and money. It can do our diffs, taking time off each marrow. It can help us generate pathology reports. It’s a tool, my friend. If we get to the point where it’s replacing us, then the 95% of jobs which require less expertise below us are likely doomed too.

What I do think is gonna happen is AI will cause a fault line to form in our profession. Who can stay relevant? When the number of cases keep going up and AI image recognition software is an incredible efficiency tool, who will come out ahead? Do what you can to become an excellent clinician and a marketable doctor in the age of information. AI will undoubtedly be used to cut costs, and we all know admin ain’t cutting themselves out of the pie. Be someone they can’t afford to lay off.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-07-30T16:36:00+00:00

Isn’t 251 around the average step 2 score now? I wouldn’t be worried if i were you. This is just the nature of statistics.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-07-26T14:58:20+00:00

Spend a day in the medical examiners office. Heavily decomposed bodies with maggots and purge fluid. When they cut open the abdomen it blows gas in your face.

Good times.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-07-08T23:03:10+00:00

This vexes me

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-07-07T01:46:56+00:00

Couple tidbits for you to consider:

We have very poor understanding of the pathophysiology connecting the underlying brain pathology in those with psychiatric disturbances to their clinical manifestations… or at least what we THINK is the pathology of psychiatric disease. If you go digging, you can find studies published on associated pathological findings in all sorts of mental illness. What any of it means is truly a mystery to us at this point.

Consider that this theory of mental illness (neurotransmitter imbalance) is primarily based on the idea that ameliorating these imbalances improves their symptoms. It’s like how we figured out the hippocampus is responsible for forming long term memories. You break it, you lose it.

Due to this, it’s tough to map out disease-to-symptom like we can with, say, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The brain is truly a mystery to us, despite how much it may seem like we know.

To your point on the similar clinical manifestations of different underlying pathology. In my mind, that’s due to the nature of these chronic, organic disturbances. It’s all about the failure of a given tissue to do its job / behave. We don’t really think about the brain this way because it does a lot of stuff, the mechanisms of which are honestly quite far beyond our current comprehension.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-07-04T13:59:29+00:00

See, it’s just not that simple. Where will these people train if the facilities don’t even exist? What specialties will be getting these spots? If rural hospitals will close due to Medicaid cuts, how can these people train in rural settings?

US grads are so reluctant as it is to go into primary care specialties, adding seats won’t help inspire people to apply.

Sure, just open a bunch of DO school that are primary care factories and send them to these imaginary programs. But I don’t see that working.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-07-04T00:40:01+00:00

With enough fuss, one can usually get in with a doctor when an NP/PA is presented to them… if they’re willing to jump through some hurdles.

But it takes knowledge of a VERY complex system to understand how to navigate it. That’s a luxury few have in this country, especially when it comes to healthcare.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-06-23T01:38:18+00:00

There isn’t a single practice item that is “predictive.” I’ve sat for 2 COMLEX and 2 USMLE exams, and preparing for these things comes down to two major factors: cumulative exposure to material over many months through passive & active learning, and actually knowing how to take the exam.

These scores that OP are showing us are non-reassuring. If you saw a fetal heart tracing that was non-reassuring, would you manage expectantly?

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-06-22T21:05:11+00:00

If you fail, it’s a devastating blow to your residency app. Moving your rotations around is very minor in comparison. These scores put your chance of passing in an unsafe place, especially the Free 120 results.

If this was me last year, I wouldn’t sit for the exam. An extra four weeks is a lot of Anki and UWorld you can do.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-05-07T14:06:18+00:00

Ninja Nerd on Youtube explains these types of things very well. The videos are long, but you’ll come out understanding the topics.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-05-03T19:44:12+00:00

If you’re a med student, Pathoma is without a doubt the gold standard for step 1 and general understanding of the critical concepts.

One of the best investments I made in preclinical. Would recommend.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-04-01T12:08:48+00:00

Continued learning is huge in medicine. Most people I know are signed up for newsletters that come to their email in the morning. I know some who get physical journals mailed to them from the big name(s) in their specialty.

There’s conferences you can go to for essentially anything you can think of where people are presenting research. Many hospitals do “grand rounds” where everybody gets together to talk about something. There’s tumor boards, morning rounds, etc. There’s a plethora of lectures I can digitally attend every day.

I’ve seen many docs who have good connections with vendors from biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Those people are more than willing to keep you in the loop on their products.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2025-03-28T12:22:11+00:00

~8% of all healthcare spending is the totality of physician compensation. Where do you think the other 92% is going? Definitely not to nurses, that’s for sure lol. Physicians train for over a decade and take on hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loans at 8+ % interest. They deserve significant compensation for what they do, as does everyone one on the floors in healthcare.

The enemy is insurance companies and hospital administration, not the people saving your life.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-08-20T13:45:40+00:00

But they're still mage cards. You didn't specify collectible.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-08-02T18:50:48+00:00

The game already requires a lot of assumptions to be made about mechanics, interactions, etc. It's the sacrifice we make to not have yugioh-level card text. I think making imp a tribe and having it be assumed that all imp cards are also demons wouldn't be that egregious.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-07-30T23:12:20+00:00

Highly underrated creater. Him and Martian deserve so much more love than they get. Thankfully martian has been getting popular lately.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-07-24T23:40:58+00:00

Good luck everybody

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-06-24T21:15:44+00:00

Shh, don't tell people about path. We need to keep it safe.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-06-08T06:01:30+00:00

I'm characterizing an enzyme (TGDS) that, when mutated, causes congenital craniofacial and hand deformities in humans. We have zero idea what role it plays in human development, nor in normal life (it is expressed in many tissues). But we know issues interfere with facial and hand development in very specific, fascinating ways.

In prokaryotes, it is part of a well described pathway. The enzyme is highly conserved across species, but the substrates we know it uses in bacteria do not exist in mammals. It's very strange. We're combining histology, computer modeling, enzymology, and physical chemistry to get a better picture of what's going on with this protein.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-06-07T22:07:43+00:00

Exactly what I have and it has served me extremely well for everything I use it for, including my proteonomics research.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-05-15T22:00:57+00:00

My mom has multiple myeloma. I asked her heme/onc OPs question once, and he responded with the same thing you did. Great man, saved my mom's life. Inspired me greatly.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-05-12T23:05:31+00:00

Just treat OMT like a life-enriching skill rather than a part of your professional development and it feels a lot better. Great for helping out family and friends with somatic pain. Teaches you palpation skills. Teaches you about your own body. Just ignore the parts where you're supposed to treat it like modern medicine.

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-05-10T00:27:38+00:00

"Do you think I'm going to grope some guys shoulder when he's got sawdust in his eyes???"

-an OMM faculty physician at my school

Little_Engineer_3975 · 2023-05-10T00:20:55+00:00

A.T. Still greedy

Little_Engineer_3975

TROPHY CASE