Pathology is the medical specialty concerned with the study of the nature and causes of diseases. Pathologists are specialist medical practitioners who study the cause of disease and the ways in which diseases affect our bodies by examining changes in the tissues and in blood and other body fluids. Some of these changes show the potential to develop a disease, while others show its presence, cause or severity or monitor its progress or the effects of treatment.

General pathology involves all aspects of pathology. It deals with the diagnosis and management of disease by use of every component of laboratory medicine and every diagnostic technique, including examination of the patient. General pathologists have a very broad understanding of the pathophysiology of disease, the diagnostic value of individual tests and also of the laboratory and its workings.

They use their expertise in macroscopic pathology, histopathology (surgical pathology), cytopathology, chemical pathology, haematology, microbiology, immunopathology, molecular pathology and autopsy pathology in the diagnosis and management of patients and in offering expert opinion to clinicians as to the choice of biopsy/specimen, taking into account the clinical setting and its limitations in the interpretation of results.