Impact of education on institutional and faculty rates of atypical squamous cells

Quality Metrics to Assess Cytopathology Practice Patterns: Focus on Thyroid Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology

“…This confidential feedback can be provided at regular intervals or on demand through the use of electronic dashboards that continuously monitor data with automated updates 12 . Cytopathologist and cytotechnologist feedback has been shown to be effective in positively impacting practice patterns for a number of gynecologic and nongynecologic specimen types and should be a component of any cytology laboratory quality assurance program 14–16 . Of course, there is a fine balance that must be struck between the frequency of providing feedback on the one hand versus the potential of overreacting to noise in the data on the other, especially when based on relatively rare events.…”

“…12 Cytopathologist and cytotechnologist feedback has been shown to be effective in positively impacting practice patterns for a number of gynecologic and nongynecologic specimen types and should be a component of any cytology laboratory quality assurance program. [14][15][16] Of course, there is a fine balance that must be struck between the frequency of providing feedback on the one hand versus the potential of overreacting to noise in the data on the other, especially when based on relatively rare events. Although thyroid FNAs frequently represent one of the highervolume nongynecologic specimens in many cytopathology laboratories, providing feedback on AUS rates or more complex metrics such as surgical outcome data or molecular testing results should not be done more frequently than specimen volumes allow.…”