Pathology Department

Vision:

 To be a national and international leader in pathology education, patient care services, and research.

Mission:

1 - Graduating students with capabilities of a strong scientific basis in different fields of laboratory medicine with continuing updating of these capabilities with specialization in light of the vigorous development in the branches of this science. These capabilities prepare students to receive clinical science in advanced stages.

2 - Encourage scientific research in the fields of pathology and recognize the factors and causative organisms of diseases based on strong scientific knowledge to be beneficial to the improvement of this specialty and be beneficial to the community.

3 - Provide medical and advisory services at the highest level to contribute in the treatment of patients.

4 - Active participation in the training of highly qualified medical candidates at all levels and in different disciplines.

General Objectives:

The department of pathology is aiming at improving the medical teaching process to graduate a well-qualified medical student able to take care of the patients and also submitting distinctive clinical laboratory services to the university hospitals through:
1 - Providing all the necessary facilities to train doctors by creating a distinctive scientific community, including appropriate qualified teachers and modern equipment in laboratories and classrooms and teaching aids on the highest international standards.
2 - Providing the training programs for technicians and laboratory specialists and fellowship candidates in the different specialties of pathology: Histopathology, hematology, microbiology and clinical chemistry.
3 - Encourage and support of scientific research in all branches of laboratory medicine.
4 - Improvement of the level of clinical laboratory services provided to the patients in the university hospitals.

Department Establishment:

The Department of Pathology is one of the largest departments in the Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, which is the first Medical College established in the Kingdom within the context of the University of Riyadh earlier that modulate its name later to King Saud University.

Since the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine, the Department of Pathology with all its units is continuously working on the development of this science in all areas of academic, training, research and service. Doctors graduated and still graduating from this department and from the Faculty of Medicine generally are highly qualified physicians with the capacity of scientific distinction. The Department of Pathology still strive to improve the quality of teaching and training for up to international standards through the development of teaching methods and the use of modern technology in teaching as well as periodic review of regulations. The department develops skills of faculty members and provide them with their needs to carry out scientific research beneficial in all branches of this section.

The Department of Pathology seeks to raise the level of the quality of medical and laboratory services provided to patients. The department has earned the academic accreditation within the context of the College of Medicine and obtained the Canadian Accreditation and Recognition of the diagnostic laboratories at King Khalid University Hospital and King Abdul Aziz University Hospital and adoption of the American College of Pathology (CAP) in recognition of the efficiently medical laboratory services provided.

Department Services:
The pathology department at the Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, provide multiple services including academic , clinical, consultancy and technical services.
1. Academic Services: include teaching courses of pathology, hematology, immunology, microbiology, medical genetics and clinical biochemistry for medical undergraduate students, within the reformed curriculum of the College of Medicine and also provide teaching of pathology, microbiology and immunology for the second year dental students.

The Department of Pathology supervise and provide teaching and training in the King Saud University Fellowship program of Pathology including; Histopathology, Hematology, Clinical Biochemistry, and Microbiology). This service is provided to the accepted medical graduates from KSU Medical College or from other hospitals, such as the Ministry of Health hospitals, King Faisal Specialist Hospital, the military hospital in Riyadh, National Guard hospital and King Fahd Security Forces Hospital. The candidate who passed the five years’ program successfully will get the degree of KSU Fellowship in Pathology. The graduates will be able to work in their hospitals in distinctive capabilities to provide the highest levels of lab services in this field.

2. Training services: the Department of Pathology has a number of qualified technicians and specialists and experts in this field who provide training for students of the Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Faculty of Science and the medical graduates who take rotations in the department as a part of their mandatory or optional courses after graduation.

3. Research activities: the faculty members and consultants achieved a number of basic and clinical researches that contributed to the enrichment of medical knowledge and helped in improving the services provided to the patients, and are sharing their expertise with other colleagues in this field through workshops, seminars and conferences inside and outside the Kingdom.

4. Diagnostic services: clinical laboratory units contain a number of well-equipped laboratories with the updated brands of equipments, receiving thousands of samples per year in the university hospitals, as well as providing some reference advisory services to some of the samples received from outside the university hospitals.

5. Community services: several staff of the pathology department participate in giving educational and academic lectures in the Community College, these lecture s are taught to high secondary school graduates who seek Diploma in tropic microbiology and hematology.

The staff member who look after blood transfusion service give educational lectures and talk to the public on the importance of blood donation.

The mini publications of the department on topics of hospital cross infection and whole management we also distributed to some public services and health institutions.