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The goal of this handbook is to make a new pathology trainee able to properly handle at least 80% of cases that are expected at an average general pathology department, including the exclusion of the most pertinent differential diagnoses thereof.
It is recommended to scroll quickly through this handbook to get an idea of its content, and then keeping it at a known location for whenever information is needed for a corresponding patient case. It is not recommended to memorize its content indiscriminately. Other doctors and even laypersons can look up diseases and conditions themselves, including pathology characteristics, without the need for a pathologist consultation, so the expertise of memorizing such readily available information is expendable. In a world where diseases and conditions can readily be '''looked up''', a major skill that distinguishes a pathologist from any person with Internet access is mainly the ability to identify and put '''words''' to findings on microscopy or other non-written results. Another major skill is to be able to deal with '''unusual or equivocal''' presentations. Unusual or equivocal presentations of very common diseases and conditions are still generally more common than rare diseases, and constitutes a major workload in everyday pathology practice. However, most textbooks still give disproportionately large room for rare diseases compared to such presentations. Nevertheless, strive to '''master the common''' conditions (including the most common pitfalls) before diving into the uncommon. Specialists and subspecialists may already have learned the common conditions, at least in their subspecialty, and they will often distract you from this pursuit by presenting rare conditions to you, because that is interesting to ''them'', but do not spend excessive time or mental effort on such rare conditions during your first years.
===What a pathologist needs to memorize===
An Internet denialist who has memorized something may '''assume''' that pathology trainees should memorize it as well, and entire lectures may largely consist of rants of such items. In reality, when something is encountered and looked up something enough times, it will generally get memorized, and it is generally more efficient to let time tell which situations will be common versus uncommon, rather than trying to memorize knowledge that may never be needed.
Also, while you should initially focus on learning the most common conditions, specialists and subspecialists may already have learned the common conditions, at least in their subspecialty, and they will often distract you from your pursuit by presenting rare conditions to you, because that is interesting to ''them'', but do not spend excessive time or mental effort on such rare conditions during at least your first years.
An Internet denialist '''exam''' is basically any exam wherein the examiner does not have access to the Internet, and typically is not allowed to ask colleagues either, even for non-emergent topics that can conveniently and timely be handled by such resources. Since the Internet and teamwork are fundamental parts of everyday practice, such exams are thereby of a different dimension.
