Frequently Asked Questions
Last revised 8 March 2023
Q. How do I use the website?
A. This website is designed to find pathology information fast. From the Home Page, you can click on the buttons along the top, click on the Home icon in the Header upper left, click on the chapters in the middle section, use the website search engine at the top of the page or click on the banner ads. Each chapter has a table of contents at the beginning composed of links. To get to a topic, you can click on the appropriate Table of Contents link. To find a particular word or phrase on a page, use Control F in your browser. Some links open a new window / page. To go back to the previous page, you should close this new window / page.
Q. What type of information is available at PathologyOutlines.com?
A. Our mission is to provide text and images that help practicing pathologists and laboratory personnel. We limit our website to information that supports this mission. Thus, there is very little information on our website about medications, surgery or types of treatment. There are also many medical conditions that we do not encounter as pathologists and these are not discussed at our website.
Q. Is a user ID / password required?
A. No. Our website is free and requires no registration. There are no user IDs or passwords. We support free full text for medical information. We provide numerous links to references and we prefer links to journals that are free full text and require no registration.
Q. Can I use information from your site for lectures? / can I link to your website?
A. Please see our Copyright information page by clicking here.
Q. A link is broken - what should I do?
A. We regularly check for broken links and fix them; if you find a broken link, please click on the Comment button at the very top of the page where the broken link is and report it to us.
Q. Where do I send suggestions for improvements to the site?
A. Please send any suggestions to us at Comments@PathologyOutlines.com. We respond to all suggestions.
Q. How can you offer all these services for free?
A. Our website is based on the Google business model - provide a free website that people really want to use and generate revenue based on advertising. We are entirely supported by advertising, including banner ads and advertising for jobs, conferences and fellowships. If you like our website, please tell your pathology related vendors about our website and suggest that they advertise with us.
Q. Can you answer questions about my own medical problems?
A. Sorry, but this website does not answer personal questions. We have no pathologists on staff who provide patient care. Our purpose is to provide useful professional information to practicing pathologists and laboratory personnel in 15 seconds or less. Click here for patient related inquiries.
Q. Are there any ways to find a topic other than looking in the Table of Contents?
A. There are 4 ways to search for a topic. First, the Home Page has a search box at the top that you can use to search all pages on the website for specific text. Second, once you are at a specific chapter / topic, you can use the search feature of your browser. For Internet Explorer or Firefox, click Ctrl + F (hold down the control button and then press F), then type in the text to search on that page. Third, you can use the Table of Contents at the top of any chapter. Fourth, you can use your favorite search engine, then type the topic and PathologyOutlines.com.
Q. How do I use the virtual slides?
A. Some textbook pages have virtual slides. To use the virtual slides, click on the part of the big image you want to see at higher power. Then, use the pull down menu for the smaller image in the upper right corner to choose the "objective". You can move around on the virtual slide by clicking different parts of the image. Some computer systems have firewalls that prevent the virtual slides from working.
Q. How do you guard against computer viruses?
A. We use antivirus software on all of our computers but any computer can get infected. If you find a possible problem with our website, please contact us immediately at Comments@PathologyOutlines.com. We almost never send attachments; if we do, there will be a detailed message about it. However, today's virus makers are very clever and can make an email message appear to come from anyone. If you are uncertain about an email attachment from us or anyone else, we suggest you contact the purported sender by telephone or separate email to verify that it is not malicious. We recommend that you use antivirus software and antimalware software to check your computers daily and to stop any infections.
