Armed Forces Medical College

The Department of Pathology came into existence after the amalgamation of ‘Central Military Pathology Laboratory’ with the Armed Forces Medical College in 1948. In 1979, the then Department of Pathology was trifurcated into the present Departments of Pathology, Microbiology and Biochemistry. The faculty is an ideal blend of experience and potential and includes molecular pathologists.

The Department of Pathology provides diagnostic services to all general and super-speciality centres of Command Hospital (Southern Command) Pune. Referral services are offered to all service hospitals and local academic Institutions in Histopathology, Cytopathology, Hematology and Clinical Pathology and also in specialized facilities like Frozen Section diagnosis, Histochemistry, Immuno-histochemistry, Immunofluorescence, Cytogenetics and Electron Microscopy. The Hematology section is quipped with the latest cell counters and Immunophenotyping facilities. The department is also engaged not only in routine diagnostics but also in research involving state-of-the-art techniques such as Flowcytometry, Karyotyping, FISH and PCR-based techniques, in the field of hemato-oncology and tumour pathology.

The department has Quality Assurance as a central dogma which is attained by continuous internal quality assurance and validation of diagnosis and test results. The Dept reached an important milestone in its history when it attained accreditation in Hematology by NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) as per ISO 15189:2012 on 31 Oct 2019, which migrated to ISO 15189:2022. Accreditation of the Dept has been renewed on 08 Aug 2025.

The Department of Pathology is committed to being a leader in patient care, education, training and research. We aim to provide accurate, timely and the highest quality diagnostic services so as ensure the best possible patient management and care. We constantly strive to impart excellence in education and training to laboratory personnel, undergraduate and postgraduate students so as to foster their intellectual and ethical development while nurturing their capacity to think skillfully and critically. We are also committed to the pursuit of knowledge and to expand the boundaries of Pathology and Medicine through basic and applied research. Our endeavor is to provide comprehensive services in all these realms to uphold our motto.

The Department is recognized for undergraduate, postgraduate and paramedical courses by MUHS, Nashik. Classes for MDS, SDO courses are conducted along with training of laboratory assistants, laboratory technologists of the Army Medical Corps (BSc PMT under the aegis of MUHS, Nashik and DMLT under the aegis of UPSMF, Lucknow). The Department has a well-equipped pathology museum with more than thousand specimens covering a wide spectrum of lesions. The specimens have been neatly catalogued and QR coded, with compiling of the differential diagnosis in each case, thus providing an excellent tissue teaching data bank for the students. A large number of clinical autopsies are also conducted by the Dept. A well-stocked library is maintained where latest editions of standard textbooks and monograms are readily available for reference.