MY Consultant - Dr Tauseef Kapadi | Blog posts

Throughout the week, we're celebrating the achievements and contributions of newly recruited consultants across our Trust. Dr Tauseef Kapadi works as a Consultant in Cellular Pathology to deliver compassionate care to patients. This is Dr Kapadi’s journey…

Hello, my name is Dr Tauseef Kapadi, I am a Consultant in Cellular Pathology at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. To put this simply, I am a qualified to diagnose and study diseases in tissues and organs. We like to say that pathology is the science behind the cure.

I am originally from Birmingham; I went to medical school there and completed a Biomedical Science intercalated degree in the Clinical Sciences before Foundation medicine and surgery rotations in the West Midlands. I decided I wanted to specialise in Cellular Pathology because I saw how bridging the gap between pathological sciences and clinical sciences can make a difference to people’s lives.

My work can have impacts at all stages of a patient’s journey from their initial diagnosis on small biopsies through to reporting on surgical specimens. It includes working on cancer diagnoses and inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. It also requires much more of a multidisciplinary approach than you might expect for a laboratory-based specialty. Bringing together clinical and radiological findings is the key to understanding the pathological features so this is critical to giving a safe and meaningful report for clinicians and our patients. I am confident that the Mid Yorkshire NHS Hospitals Trust will provide a supportive environment for this kind of multidisciplinary team working, not least because of strong performance in diagnostics and radiology.

In my spare time I enjoy cooking and especially baking; apart from the pathology lab, being in the kitchen is a happy place for me. It’s something that kept me going through the latter parts of my training and my final professional exams when maintaining a healthy work-life balance was very important for me.

I have trained as a Specialist Registrar in Histopathology in the Yorkshire and Humber deanery since 2014 and completed training at the beginning of 2023.

Prior to this, I had developed my interest in Histopathology during my studies at medical school in the West Midlands and in my foundation years. What began with attachments in Clinical Oncology, Clinical Genetics, and research in immunology, developed into a fascination with examining tissue under a microscope and being able to develop a report of the findings, communicate this with clinicians and together decide the best course of action.

From that early stage, I have seen the value of innovation in developing the services we can offer to our patients; my first experience of this, was with a consultant who I regard as a pioneer in clinical genomics testing (genomics testing is finding genetic variations in blood, amniotic fluid or body tissue samples that can cause health problems) and bringing together these tests with Histopathology reporting. It might have seemed radical back in 2012 but accelerating and embedding genomics in all that we do is now established as a priority for the NHS over the next five years.

Over the course of my training, I have acquired a broad experience in Histopathology in specialist/tertiary settings and in District General Hospitals. I was fortunate to be able to take a year out of training for a Health Education England Future Leaders Fellowship in Digital Pathology.

During this time, I presented my work to the regional Cancer Alliance team to explore the future role of digital pathology in networking trusts across the region. I’m really excited about the possibilities to develop these partnerships to streamline the patient pathway from their first biopsy to their multidisciplinary team review, which is when a group of healthcare professionals from different fields come together to determine patients' treatment plan.

I have also been involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, to try to engage the future cohorts of Histopathology trainees.

Throughout my time as a Specialist Registrar, the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has been something of a constant, something that I have always enjoyed coming back to, so I’m happy to be able to come back here as a consultant to develop my own career, innovate and encourage collaboration so that we can offer the best outcomes for patients.

I previously held a post as a Locum Consultant in Cellular Pathology within the Trust, which helped to bridge the gap between my Certificate of Completion of training date and my new role at the Trust as a Consultant in Cellular Pathology, a role I began this month.

I have spent several training rotations at the Trust and my educational supervisor was also based at the Trust during my studying, so I have been supported by the organisation throughout my training and at key times during my training.

To me, the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust provides the fantastic balance between a robust, evidence-based, and patient-centred training whilst giving staff the support and opportunities they need to perform at their best and excel in their professions.

For undergraduates, I have seen myself how an early positive experience of a specialty can really shape a career, so I want to be able to give that back once settled in my new role. I am looking forward to the opportunities to develop teaching and training, such as becoming an Educational Supervisor myself.

For postgraduates, I would like to promote the links between our work in Histopathology with medical and surgical specialities such as Dermatology and Gastroenterology in discussions to integrate the clinical findings with the pathology.

Ultimately, I believe it’s about providing the most value to our patients the first-time round by pooling our expertise.