Quality improvement in cytology: where do we go from here?

Cytology is a success because of the many quality controls used to ensure the accuracy of its results. Nevertheless, additional information is becoming available to the cytologist, often from untraditional sources, and the best way to use that information to improve the quality of cytology is not yet known.

To review ways to use new information to improve the quality of cytology.

Review of relevant literature.

Information contained in many sources can be used in new ways to improve the quality of cytology. These include the timing of cytologic and histologic correlation, electronic medical records, workload information, prior aspirations, and molecular tests.

To maintain their high standard of excellence, cytologists should seek to define the most appropriate way to incorporate this new information into their interpretation of individual cases.