Dr. Natalie Hoepp: confessions of a clinical pathology superhero

Dr. Natalie Hoepp is on a mission to make clinical pathology great again.- MCPGA. And that’s why she teamed up with Scopio Labs, an innovative digital pathology company as the company’s medical director.

Before joining Scopio, Dr. Natalie was a clinical pathologist at the University of Pennsylvania, where she remains involved with the Comparative Pathology Core Lab. She is one of many former veterinary technicians that eventually pursued a veterinary degree.

While many of us secretly cringe when we have to do a FNA, to Dr. Natalie, a stained slide is a piece of art. She even chose an image of a cytology slide as her background of her Linked In profile- that is dedication!

We caught up with this amazing mom of one to learn more:

If I wasn’t a veterinarian I would be:

If I wasn’t a veterinarian, I would definitely be a writer.  I imagine myself sitting in the study of a beautiful old Victorian with a view of the countryside, working on my next novel.

Why did I choose pathology?

I love physiology and I related physiology to pathology…like applied physiology. Also, erythrocytes, although they are mere bags of cytoplasm,  can do amazing things with no brains. I can respect that.

Best career advice I ever received:

“You need to start working like a man.” I realize this may not be a popular response, but it is an honest one. Go to work, stay out of the drama, go home on time, don’t take any crap and don’t take things personally.

Most agonizing career decision I ever made:

Leaving academia for a better life for my family…and my health. 

How did  I felt the minute I found out that I passed my Clin Path boards:

Stunned.  I immediately called my husband but I couldn’t even speak.

Easiest career decision I made:

Accepting a vet tech job at Littleton Large Animal Clinic.

Books that left a lasting impression on me:

I love to read!  A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman, Calypso by David Sedaris (just finished, probably the best Sedaris yet), any books by Elizabeth Strout, and all books by Anne Lamott, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Rob Bell.

How do I clear my head after a stressful day:

Bath, trashy television, in that order, every day. Glass of wine, true crime, bed by 9… that is me.

Advice for my younger self:

Stay above the fray. Where was Brene Brown with her common enemy intimacy advice when I was in my 20s?

Change I would like to see in my industry and how we can get there:

People in our profession often take our frustrations out on each other. My advice as someone who has been a veterinary technician, a veterinarian, a specialist, and a manager, is to respect and support all of your colleagues.  

What’s the biggest problem facing veterinarians today:

The biggest problem facing our industry to day is emotional burnout. I would never want to be a practicing veterinarian. Isn’t that a shame? I went to vet school having worked in practice, loving direct patient care, thinking I would continue with that after school, and now as a clinical pathologist, I feel like I avoided an existence that would have eroded my soul. My office is in a practice. I see the emotional investment that goes into the day of a veterinarian’s work and how often it is rewarded with unforgiving clients. I didn’t recognize that vulnerability in veterinarians as readily when I was a tech. They were in control, they were my boss, and as far as I was concerned, they were out there crushing it, but behind the scenes everything was far from perfect.

What are the best things (and worst things) about being married to another vet?

The best thing is we don’t work together and have completely different and non-traditional veterinary occupations. Neither of us have clients in the standard sense, mine are veterinarians, and he works in shelter medicine. This means nobody is too serious in our house at the end of the day. You can’t have a shelter vet and a pathologist in a relationship without a certain level of gallows humor.

Worst thing: Someone in a vet couple is probably in highly unpleasant educational debt, in our case it is just me. It is just my education we are still paying for. Now we only owe the equivalent of two houses, rather than three houses and a practice.