Quality Control Program and Its Results of Korean Society for Cytopathologists

Abstract

In Korea, the quality control(QC) program forcytopathology was introduced in 1995. The program consists of a checklist for the cytolopathology departments, analysis data on all the participating institutions' QC data, including the annual data on cytologic examinations, the distribution of the gynecological cytologic diagnoses, as based on The Bethesda System 2001, and the data on cytologic-histolgical correlation of the gynecological field, and an evaluation for diagnostic accuracy. The diagnostic accuracy program has been performed 3 times per year with using gynecological, body fluid and fine needle aspiration cytologic slides. We report here on the institutional QC data and the evaluation for diagnostic accuracy since 2004, and also on the new strategy for quality control and assurance in the cytologic field. The diagnostic accuracy results of both the participating institutions and the QC committee were as follows; Category 0 and A: about 94%, Category B: 4~5%, Category C: less than 2%. As a whole, the cytologic daignostic accuracy is relatively satisfactory. In 2008, on site evaluation for pathology and cytology laboratories, as based on the "Quality Assurance Program for Pathology Services"is now going on, and a new method using virtual slides or image files for determining the diagnostic accuracy will be performed in November 2008. (Korean J Cytopathol 2008;19(2):65-71)

Current status of cytopathology practices in Korea: annual report on the Continuous Quality Improvement program of the Korean Society for Cytopathology for 2018

“…A more balanced sample composition for the PT should be carefully designed in the future. In comparison with the prior results of PT in 2004 and 2007, the concordant rate slightly but gradually increased from 73.0% in 2004 and 74.5% in 2007 to 75.2% in 2018 [1]. The major discordant rate (category C) also gradually decreased from 2.8% in 2004 and 2.0% in 2007 to 0.5% in 2018 [1].…”

“…In 2018, an annual average of 47,667 cases was processed by individual laboratories that processed only 19,000 cases in 2004. This seems to be primarily due to the introduction of screening cytologic exams in the National Cancer Screening Program [1,2,8]. The proportion of non-GYN samples has also been gradually increasing over time.…”

“…The Korean Society for Cytopathology (KSC) has conducted the Continuous Quality Improvement program for cytopathology laboratories in Korea since 1995 [1]. In 1992, the Committee of Quality Improvement of the KSC (CQIKSC) was first founded.…”

“…The statistical analysis of the submitted data has been unofficially performed by CQIKSC to efficiently develop a strategy for quality improvement. Official reports have only been published twice: in 2008 (using data collected before 2007) [1] and 2017 (using data collected before 2016) [4]. A new report using the data collected between 2007 and 2017 is currently being compiled for publication.…”

Continuous quality improvement program and its results of Korean Society for Cytopathology

“…Since 2004, the Committee has collected internal quality assurance data for the previous year from each institution at the first of the four quality assurance evaluation rounds per year and evaluated diagnostic accuracy from the second to fourth rounds. In 2008, the Committee compiled and reported the quality assurance status for the cytopathology field until 2007 in Korean Journal of Cytopathology [1].…”