From lab to river: Dr Teague retires

(Aotea News, December 2011)

If Clint Teague thought leaving behind the increasingly complex world of molecular level pathology might make life easy, sorting out the settings on his new Canon camera may just prove his undoing.

Dr Teague retired this month after nearly 25 years with Aotea Pathology and its predecessor Medical Laboratory Wellington.

He is set to soon hand in his practising certificate and turn his focus to more relaxing pursuits. Top of his list: enjoying the company of three under-three-year-old grandchildren and trying to master the myriad controls on his digital camera to capture trout and insects along some of his favourite trout streams.

Aotea well-placed to thrive

He's leaving the company with it very well-placed, he says, to thrive in the new world of pathology. It’s a world where technology advances now mean much of the diagnosis is done at a molecular level for an ever-growing range of disorders that pathologists are called upon to diagnose.

"There's a huge range of sciences involved in pathology now. They are all evolving very fast and becoming more relied on to help the medical community; and more disorders are becoming specifically treatable and ever-more defined diagnoses are required.

"Aotea is very well positioned to cope with all the change,” Dr Teague says.

“We were one of the first private laboratories in the country to start working at a molecular level. We have a very strong molecular biology team and in each division of Aotea we are using very advanced molecular techniques.”

While it is the potential of technology advances that impress looking forward, it is the people — looking back — that leave the biggest impression on the genial anatomic pathologist and former senior lecturer at the Wellington School of Medicine.

"I may totter into the odd meeting over the coming months but really I’m signing off now, and I’m going to miss the highly enjoyable interaction from teaching the pathology registrars and all my regular sessions discussing cases with the clinical specialists,” he says.

The corporatisation of pathology

Dr Teague says one of the biggest changes in medicine over his working life has been the corporatisation of the profession and its growing focus on financial decision making, and in many ways he thinks that is a necessary thing.

With New Zealand having to face tough decisions about how to spend a limited public dollar, the medical profession rightly has to be able to justify every bit of spending.

"We have to keep improving our knowledge about medicine, health and making accurate diagnoses, but we have to understand that we can’t treat everything that is treatable.

"I also tell pathologists to advocate strongly for their patients and to stand up for them. It can cause conflict at times but with a limited budget you need to back yourself to get the right outcomes."

Dr Teague started his career in pathology as a student at medical school in Wellington.

He practised in Auckland, New York and Brisbane, where he helped set up pathology in Australasia's first liver transplant centre, before returning to Wellington to work at a forerunner of Aotea Pathology.

Liver and gastrointestinal pathology

During his career, he has had a special interest in liver and gastrointestinal pathology and a lifetime research interest in that field. He served on many College and national committees including those on cervical cytology and colorectal cancer screening.

After a career full of achievement, perhaps mastering that camera won’t be so tricky after all.