Pathologist enjoys mystery of science in her job
NEWARK – Dr. Lori Elwood got her start in medicine at age 12.
She signed up to be a candy striper at her local hospital as an American Red Cross teen volunteer. One of her relatives was a nurse, and Elwood remembers having a lot of respect for her and finding the work interesting.
Fast forward to her adult life, and Elwood is now the chief of Pathology and medical director of the laboratory for Licking Memorial Health Systems.
"I think what I love about it is that there's always a mystery," Elwood said of her job. "The scientific process is kind of like solving a mystery: We make observations and hypothesis and come to conclusions. ... There's always something new to learn."
Elwood attended night school while still in high school to become a nurse's aid, but somewhere down the line she decided to switch gears and pursue a career as a doctor. She started out in internal medicine before adjusting her specialty to become a pathologist.
As a pathologist, Elwood deals in primarily two areas: Clinical pathology and anatomical pathology. The clinical side deals with managing the clinical lab and working with doctors to interpret lab testing. In her role as director of the lab, Elwood is responsible for the quality of all lab testing that is performed and oversees the hospital's blood bank/transfusion center.
A recent patient at the hospital was experiencing some high calcium levels, and the doctors had already run multiple tests and weren't able to come up with an answer. So it was up to Elwood and her team to find out why. They used their database and research books to come up with a different list of diagnoses that would fit.
"We have to ask what can support this possibility? Maybe if patient has a tumor in certain area that would cause it, so we'll recommend certain procedures. We also have to ask is it occurring by itself or is it being driven by something else?" Elwood said.
On the anatomical side, Elwood interprets and processes biopsies and large specimens. For example, if someone has a mass in his or her liver, Elwood and her staff would work closely with radiologists to get a piece of tissue and process it to get a representation of the tissue to make a diagnosis.
But these are just some of the things a pathologist can do. What's great about this field, Elwood said, is that there are many different avenues a person could take with his or her career. One of the other areas pathologists can go into is forensic pathology, which would include performing autopsies and determining a person's cause of death.
"There's a lot of flexibility. It's a challenge, though: We are an important part of the medical care team ... and it's very rewarding to be able to help our doctors and to help our patients," Elwood said.
When Elwood first started her career, there weren't many women pursuing careers in medicine. But today, the team she works on is made up of all women.
Elwood is excited to see more women being encouraged to pursue STEM careers, because the way she sees it, women can do just as well in those fields as anyone else.
"I think that women need to realize they should have the same options as men in the workplace. When I did my training, women didn't do medicine as much, they were homemakers or teachers or nurses," she said. "And by excluding 50 percent of the population, we're also excluding 50 percent of the talent, and women are most certainly as talented as men."
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About this series
This story is part of an ongoing Business Advocate series about women in science, technology, engineering and math careers. If you have a story suggestion, email emaddern@newarkadvocate.com.