Dr. Sophia Kotliar is an experienced medical expert with over two decades experience in anatomic and clinical pathology. An MD graduate from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Dr. Sophia Kotliar is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, as well as cytopathology. She currently works as a point-of-care medical director and staff pathologist at Bayhealth Medical Center, with a focus on adopting best practices for pathology gross room redesign.

The gross room is a place where pathology specimens from operating rooms are brought in for pathological review and analysis. Accurate diagnosis of a patient is based on how well tissue specimens are handled and processed in the gross room, which can be a busy area.

Anatomic pathologists are physicians who have the expert skills necessary to diagnose illnesses based on gross and histologic examination of tissues. Surgical pathologists handle many types of tissues and specimens, which need to be evaluated carefully, irrespective of their size. A pathologist works closely together with a team of personnel, including pathologist assistants, histotechnologists and other gross room technicians from a variety of educational backgrounds. Collectively, this team works to ensure the correct diagnosis is rendered.

Pathologists’ assistants play a key role in the modern gross room, which includes obtaining clinical data, specimen accessioning, preparing tissues for histological processing, gross examination of surgical specimens, photography of specimens, and specimen submission for special studies.