3 Questions with Alexa Siddon, MD

After starting medical school, Alexa J. Siddon, MD, applied for a summer student research position at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. She worked in the flow cytometry laboratory on a cohort of patients with systemic mastocytosis, learning to gate flow cytometry studies of bone marrow, and working with the molecular laboratory that identified the molecular marker to diagnose these patients. It was an eye-opening experience for Dr. Siddon to help patients and work with their clinical team in a behind-the-scenes way that allowed her to dig deep into the science of the underpinnings of disease to not only make a diagnosis but direct specific therapy. 

Here, Dr. Siddon, professor of Laboratory Medicine, director of Molecular Diagnostics and Flow Cytometry Laboratories, and associate director of the Hematology Laboratory at Yale, shares more on her experience in the medical laboratory.  

What steps do you take to maintain a strong sense of purpose and connection to the human side of healthcare?  

Being behind the scenes in a laboratory should never make us removed from our patients. Even if we aren't talking with them personally, every tube of blood, biopsy, or other sample represents a patient whose care relies on us providing timely and accurate information. To stay connected I take the time to read the patient charts, attend tumor boards, and frequently discuss patients with their clinicians to get a better understanding of their symptoms. The better we understand what is going on with the patient the more we can tailor their testing within the laboratory to provide accurate results.  

Can you share a moment when you felt especially connected to patient care through your work?  

I had a recent case where a patient had a bone marrow biopsy performed in an outpatient office for progressive pancytopenia. When I looked at the aspirate smears, the cells were mainly blasts and many looked like promyelocytes, which are suggestive of a particular type of leukemia that must be treated urgently (Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia). I discussed with the clinical team, and they had the patient come to the hospital and in that time, we were able to perform a comprehensive flow cytometry panel as well as FISH studies to identify the patient's acute leukemia and they were started on the correct chemotherapy within 24 hours. It was a great team effort, and the patient is doing well!  

If you could help patients understand one thing about the role of pathology or laboratory medicine in their care, what would it be?  

One of the things I would love to share with patients is that we're not just “the lab.” The team in pathology and laboratory medicine is a highly specialized group of physicians and medical laboratory professionals who are experts in running tests, interpreting them in the clinical context, and making diagnoses. We're also working with your clinical team to help guide your therapy based on the analyses we perform. When a physician tells a patient that they have an infection or a new diagnosis of cancer, there is a pathologist who has made that diagnosis in the laboratory using advanced technologies to get the correct diagnosis.