Evaluation of the Success With Which the College of American Pathologists Practice Management Committee Provides...

Despite studies indicating its importance to pathology practice, there is a perception that pathologists are poorly trained in management and business operational (MBO) skills. The College of American Pathologists charges its Practice Management Committee (PMC) with providing MBO intelligence. PMC activities included the online course "Pathology Business Fundamentals" (PBF) and a series of roundtable webinars.

To determine the degree to which the PMC meets its charge of providing MBO education.

We conducted evaluation surveys following the PBF course and roundtables. From these surveys we selected several outcome metrics to evaluate our objective.

Six hundred fifty individuals attended the PBF course, 186 (29%) of whom completed course evaluation surveys. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 = highest score), the mean aggregate score for "overall value" was 4.64. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 = very likely), the mean aggregate score for our outcome metric, "intent to apply" was 4.54. Of 1539 individuals who had access to post-roundtable evaluation questionnaires, 378 (25%) completed evaluations; of these, 233 (62%) indicated that the PMC is their "primary source" for MBO. Of the 132 individuals who completed a second year-end roundtable evaluation survey, 98 (74%) agreed that the sessions were "one of the best sources available for support/guidance related to practice management."

To our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating MBO education effectiveness for postgraduate pathologists and laboratory professionals. Based on evaluation survey data, the PMC appears to achieve its mission of providing adequate laboratory and pathology MBO information.