DOJ looks for ways to recruit forensic pathologists

A draft report by a Justice Department scientific working group laments the nation's shortage of these specialists. Forensic pathologists' dwindling numbers have implications for the health care system.  The national autopsy rate is down to a "miserably low" 8.5 percent, with only 4.3 percent of disease-caused deaths undergoing autopsy, the report says. That means there's less available data on whether medical procedures were performed properly.