Rebecca Johnson, MD
The doctor's doctor
“The pathologist is often described as the doctor's doctor,” says Dr. Johnson, chair of the Department of Pathology and Clinical Laboratories at Berkshire Health Systems. “By studying tissues and cells under the microscope and by performing laboratory tests, we help in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients. Many people don't realize that lab tests account for about seventy percent of a patient's medical records.” At Berkshire Health Systems, this keeps Dr. Johnson and her team of six pathologists busy, along with one hundred and fifty medical technologists, medical lab technicians, and other technical and clerical staff. “We're a big operation,” she explains. “We do over one and a half million tests a year.” 
Dr. Johnson holds a trio of board certifications in anatomic and clinical pathology; in immunopathology; and in hematopathology. She is actively involved with a number of national medical organizations in her specialty, particularly in the areas of education and board certification. “I am currently trustee and treasurer of the American Board of Pathology, the certifying organization for pathologists. I am also chair of the Pathology Review Committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the group that accredits pathology residency training programs.”
She sees the blending of community hospital and a residency teaching program at BHS as a real advantage. “It makes for a unique environment, in which our residents get to train in the same environment that most of them will work in. As a teacher, I find I'm a student, too, with the opportunity for continuous improvement of my diagnostic skills and ongoing learning.”
Although most of her work involves talking to doctors and doctors-in-training (Dr. Johnson is also a clinical professor of pathology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School), she is a strong advocate for the well-informed patient: “Every patient should ask to get a copy of his or her lab tests,” she says. “And they should make sure their physician explains what those pathology reports mean.”
Dr. Johnson joined Berkshire Health Systems in 1990, but originally hails from rural Slayton, Minnesota, near the Iowa and South Dakota borders. She earned her medical doctorate at the South Illinois University School of Medicine. After completing her residency at Hartford Hospital, she was awarded a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Today she resides with her husband Michael, an IBM executive, in Richmond.
