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Guidelines for Reports by Autopsy Pathologists is intended to help the autopsy pathologist produce reports that communicate well. Having evolved from a collection of faculty critiques of the autopsy reports, summary and opinion reports, scene reports, and death certificates produced by residents in anatomic pathology and follows in forensic pathology, the book emphasizes topics that have been troublesome for trainees. For clinicians, the medical record describes their work product. For autopsy pathologists, the written report is the work product and demands an accordingly higher standard of composition. Most reports produced by pathologists can be divided into objective and subjective elements, or, in other words, findings and opinions. The pathologist must have a clear understanding of the linkage between the two. The pathologist must have a clear understanding of the linkage between the two. When composing a report, the autopsy pathologist should serve the goal of communicating to the parties who will read the report, namely, the case pathologist him- or herself (at a later date), attorneys, the family of the decedent, and other physicians. I believe that careless and imprecise thinking leads to sloppy language, and that sloppy language leads to careless and imprecise thinking. In my experience, pathologists who learn how to clearly express and organize their findings and opinions in a written format make more detailed and focused observations at the autopsy table.
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