FIVS 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Drug Packaging, Livor Mortis, Rigor Mortis
Document Summary
Pathology is a medical specialty originally designed to study the structural and morphological changes to the body as a result of a disease state. Forensic pathology is the determination of cause and manner of death in cases of suspicious or unexplained death and is the most important of the forensic applications of biology. An additional branch of pathology is clinical pathology that includes analytical laboratory methods to study body materials for poison and drugs and other elements. They work together with forensic pathologists to determine the case and manner of death. To become a forensic pathologist, you must have a medical degree and perform a four-year residency in pathology. After the residence you can become board certified as a general pathologist but to certify as forensic pathologist, you need an additional year in residency and apply for certification through the. The major duties of a forensic pathologist are: Determine (estimate) the postmortem interval (pmi) or time of death.