by Jenne Lajiun. Posted on May 12, 2012, Saturday

KOTA KINABALU: Forensic pathology or forensic medicine is becoming a popular career option for many doctors.

There is a good number of doctors interested to take up the field of forensic pathology or forensic medicine as their future career, said Hospital Kuala Lumpur forensic pathologist, Dr Siew Sheue Feng when sharing his experiences in managing of sexual assault cases in One Stop Crisis Centre (OSCC) during the State-level Violence Prevention Awareness Seminar here yesterday.

To gain entry into forensic pathology or forensic medicine, a doctor must have the basic Bachelor in Medicine (MBBS), have completed his or her housemanship training and undergone the compulsory medical officer service before he or she is entitled to apply to undergo the four-year Masters Degree in Pathology programme, locally, he explained.

He added that there are overseas programmes available. These include the Member/Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (MRCPath (Forensic)) and the Diploma in Medical Jurisprudence (Pathology), both of which are recognised.

The length of training duration for the two overseas programmes is between two years and seven years. The average years spent by one intending to become a specialist is between 121/2 years and 13 years from the day of entering medical school, he said.

And after that, there are sub-specialty courses that one could take to improve on ones knowledge on the newest technologies and so on, he said.

During his talk, he mentioned the importance of properly managing forensic specimens as these will be used to convict person(s) of their crime(s) while in court.

The evidence is, of course, very important in any medical legal case, as you all know, he said.

He urged those in the field of collecting forensic specimens to practise care when handling them, as these aspects will be scrutinized when the case is brought to court.

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Forensic medicine increasingly popular career option