Innovation in paediatric and perinatal pathology

January 2025

This article explains how paediatric and perinatal pathologists are harnessing new technologies and working collaboratively to optimise care for children and their families.

Paediatric and perinatal pathology is one of the United Kingdom’s smallest specialties, with approximately 55 consultants practising in around 20 tertiary centres throughout the UK. Within the Royal College of Pathologists, it is a subspecialty of histopathology. It comprises 3 main areas; surgical pathology, which encompasses a very broad range of specimens from neonates to teenagers; fetal, perinatal and paediatric post-mortems (including both coronial and forensic), and placental pathology.1