The Ohio State University

Student Chapter of the

American College of Veterinary Pathologists

Interview with Dr. Steven Weisbrode, November 1, 2006

 

LM:  Can you tell us a little about how you first became interested in veterinary pathology and who you got to where you are today?

 

SW:  The interest started in veterinary school with Histology.  And I was intrigued in Histology that you could look at a tissue under microscope and make some assessment of its function.  And when I went to school – I’m a Penn graduate, obviously a lot of years ago – we did a lot of histopathology as part of our pathology course.  And again, I was fascinated by the fact that under the microscope you could make an assessment about what about the tissue was functioning wrong and how that might relate back to the clinical disease.  And that with the microscope, you could maybe even tell what disease the animal had.  I like the correlation of structure and function, and bringing that back to the clinical disease.  Continuing on with veterinary school, I was not intrigued by clinical specialties.  So I made the decision, probably by my junior year, that I was going to specialize in pathology.  Immediately after graduation, I came here to Ohio State to get my PhD training, and I’ve been here ever since!

 

LM: What is your major area of interest or research?

 

SW:  Currently, I’m not doing any active research on my own work.  I had spent a number of years doing metabolic bone disease research – the morphological aspects of metabolic bone disease – and then went on to degenerative joint disease.  Now my research is almost all collaborative.  The faculty member that I do the most collaboration with is Alicia Bertone.  And I get to use my skills in orthopedic pathology with some of her work.  And her work is very variable, again emphasizing degenerative joint disease, but also emphasizing everything from joint healing to tendon healing.  She’s very energetic and very innovative, and I’ve enjoyed working with her. 

 

LM:  Does she look at the genetic aspects of these disorders?

 

SW:  Not the genetic aspects, but using gene therapy.  So using adenoviral vectors, attempting to, for instance, put transforming growth factor into bone for healing, and see if she can get these growth factors immediately at the site.

 

LM:  What do you enjoy most about your job?

 

SW:  My job now involved mostly teaching, and I guess it’s a combined effect of watching, both at the graduate student level and at the veterinary student level, watching students be able to apply things that they learn.  It’s a great thrill watching that jet engine take off and start to fly on its own.  And I still get great enjoyment out of correlating lesions with clinical signs, and I get the opportunity to do that by teaching diagnostic pathology. 

 

LM:  What do you enjoy doing when you’re not being a pathologist?

 

SW:  I do that quite a bit of the day!  I do some private practice work that takes considerable time, along with the university job that takes a lot of time.  And that involves much of my life right now.  We do have grandchildren, and the traveling we do now is visiting grandchildren on both coasts. 

 

LM:  And when you’re not doing that you’re speed walking across campus?

 

SW:  Well, the amount of hours I exercise a day actually becomes quite a bit when you add in my biking, I try to walk an hour a day seven days a week.  I’m here on Saturdays when I’m in town, so I bike to work six days a week.  Then I do some brief calisthenics at home.  And when you add that up, that’s two hours a day!  But I think it’s time well spent. 

 

LM:  Finally, what advice do you have for students that might be interested in a career in veterinary pathology.

 

SW:  If you can, and you shouldn’t feel forced, but if you can, take advantage of the tremendous options that are open to you in terms of summer experiences and externships.  The Path Club, I’m sure, is very helpful in making you aware of these things.  The website through ACVP and the Society for Toxicologic Pathology would be very helpful.  Many veterinary pathology or biosciences departments in the veterinary schools in the US would have information about things like this.  But I would encourage students to try to test what extent of pathology interests them most.  So that at graduation, they are able to focus on choosing what kind of training they would like.  For those that might be interested in diagnostic pathology and, let’s say, clinical pathology, and they see themselves in the future doing mostly service work – then getting a PhD might not be necessary.  A straight residency program might be what is best for them.  On the other hand, someone who thinks diagnostic pathology is interesting but would like to do research as well, then to get some experience in research laboratories, or government or industrial laboratories to find out what kind of research they are interested in would be very helpful in selecting where they want to go to graduate school.  But also in these externships and these summer experiences you might learn “well, I’m not exactly sure what it is that I do want, but what would position me to make the broadest level of choices when I’m ready to make those choices,” and for the most part that’s going to involved having an advanced degree, like a PhD, and having board certification.  And from that vantage point, you should be able to make choices about what you would like to do. 

             It’s a long haul getting the PhD if you think your going to spend your life in diagnostic pathology.  But the PhD is going to make you better at anything you want to do, and with the PhD and with boards, you would have choices about whether you want to work in industry, a university, a private diagnostic lab – those choices would all be open to you.  But again, I don’t want to discourage the student that doesn’t think they want a PhD or advanced training.  Can you be a pathologist without those things?  The answer is absolutely yes!  Many drug companies hire pathologists without PhDs to do service-type work within the company, it’s a very applied research.  And diagnostic labs, both state and private, are good employment options for students that don’t have an advanced degree. 

             And there are quite a few programs, such as Tennessee and Florida, that are very willing to accept students that are not interested in the PhD.  So they would finish the residency program and then decide what they want to do.  I do want to say that our program, however, is oriented for people that are pretty convinced that they would like to get a PhD.  And we feel that we have a very good, competitive program.  We do have people that come to our program for the PhD training after they’ve completed their residency training at another institution. 

 

LM:  How long would that take?

 

SW:  Getting the PhD alone, without the residency – a very directed person could probably get that done in three and a half to four years.  Getting the residency training along with it, frankly it’s taking some of our students around four or five years.  Some of them even longer, but, I’m going to editorialize along with this now, the reason for this actually success, not that it takes that much time.  Many of these students manage to get relatively good-paying federal grants for their own salary.  Once you’ve increased the salary to the fifty or sixty thousand dollar level, graduate school doesn’t become such a bad place!   This relieves some of the pressure to get done with the program quickly. 

 

LM:  Any other words of wisdom?

 

SW:  Well, the words of wisdom I have are to keep your mind open.  If you have an interest in pathology, but aren’t sure you want to become a pathologist, explore all the other options.  Try to do as best as you can academically.  That will make you competitive afterward for a residency, pathology or clinical.  If you think you have that desire to go into clinical practice, do it!  Go into clinical practice and come back for a residency after you’ve been in practice for a couple years.  My advice, though, is before you leave an academic institution and your pathology contacts, speak to individuals that you might want to use as references.  Let them know that you were interested in pathology, but you came to veterinary school wanting to make sick animals better, and you want to try that first.  Many residency programs – we are not one of them – would prefer take a student who has been out in clinical practice, feeling that they are a more mature resident, and one who has greater experience in dealing with domestic animal diseases.  So for some programs that will be an added benefit.  But especially if you can have a faculty member that you can rely for a letter of evaluation who can say, “Yes, they spoke to me before graduation, and we really encouraged this person to become a pathologist.  And we’re not happy to see they found practice not to be what they thought it would be.  But we’re happy to see them coming back to pathology.”  And they can hopefully have notes and remembrances written down about that student so that they can write a strong letter of recommendation.