Quackery marred the ethics of the profession

Pathologists have identified quackery and employment of unqualified medical laboratory professionals as the greatest challenge which has marred the ethics of the profession. They were speaking at a seminar on 'Ethics for Pathologists', here at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Friday.
According to them, the role of the pathologist is to provide confirmatory diagnosis and improved management of diseases, give essential public health information and disease surveillance. However, the profession has been taken over by quacks and unqualified professionals who practice with poor laboratory facilities, without supervision from a strongly association or any organised health care surveillance agency.
Addressing the seminar organised by the College of Pathologists Pakistan, UHS Vice-Chancellor Professor I.A. Naveed said it is the basic obligation of every professional, including pathologists, to observe the highest standards of integrity and ethical principles. Naveed further said that pathologists have so far paid little attention to whether they might have ethical problems that differed from those of clinicians, and how these might be resolved. "The ethical problems of pathologists lie mainly in the conflict between moral obligations to the responsible clinician and to the index patient being investigated", he said, adding that there is an ethical slant to almost all aspects laboratory medicine practice."
Professor Naveed lauded the efforts of the President and other members of the College of Pathologists Pakistan for formulating a code of ethics for the practitioners. UHS Pathology Department Head Professor A.H. Nagi said, although quacks were seen in every field of medical practice, but quackery in pathology is unique because it is created and blessed by the medical practitioners of various specialties.
"These medical practitioners start pathology laboratories with the help of technicians - some qualified but mostly unqualified. Most of these laboratories are run in different private hospitals and clinics and the technicians are projected intentionally as 'pathologists' to the lay public. That is how quacks in pathology are born", he said. Professor Nagi further revealed that in 1970s, there were around 600 laboratories in Lahore which were being run by quacks or unqualified people. However, he added, there is no such data currently available.
He stressed upon the need of rigorous self-accountability and said that patient welfare should be at the heart of everything a pathologist does. He critically evaluated various articles of the Code of Ethics drafted by the College of Pathologists Pakistan and recommended more comprehensive ethical guidelines regarding use of animals for research purposes to be incorporated in the document.