What is a Hematologist?
Hematology is a branch of internal medicine. It studies the physiology, pathology and clinical laboratory work that relates to the blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases that may affect the production of blood and its components, such as blood cells, hemoglobin, blood proteins, the mechanism of coagulation, the mechanism of bleeding, etc. Also, hematology studies the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and prevention of those blood disorders. The laboratory work that goes into the study of blood is frequently performed by a medical technologist. Hematologists also very frequently do further studies in oncology - the medical treatment of cancer.
Physicians specialized in hematology are known as hematologists. Their routine work mainly includes the care and treatment of patients with hematological diseases, such as leukemia, hemophilia, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myelomas, lymphoma, and all types of anemia. Some hematologists may also work at the hematology laboratory viewing blood films and bone marrow slides under the microscope, interpreting various hematological test results. Depending on the type of blood disorder the patient may need special testing, genetic profiling and sometimes bone marrow biopsy for diagnosis. Tallahassee Cancer Institute specializes in hematology and offers comprehensive services in almost all hematologic disorders.
|Microscopic View of a Normal Peripheral Blood|