Virtual Microscopy as a Tool for Proficiency Testing in Cytopathology
Kathy L. Grant · Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine · 2004
To the Editor.—I am writing in response to the following statement made by Marchevsky et al in the article “Virtual Microscopy as a Tool for Proficiency Testing in Cytopathology” 1: “However, to our knowledge there have been few attempts to design and validate a practical proficiency testing program for gynecologic pathology using virtual microscopy techniques.”In 1996, a PhD dissertation was copyrighted and published under the title Development and Testing of an Alternative Proficiency Test for Cytotechnologists Using Computer Technology.2 The study published in the Archives is that dissertation in miniature. The 1996 study was a validated and statistically significant study. The abstract for this study appeared in the September/October 1995 issue of Acta Cytologica.3 The author won the Cytotechnologist Scientific Presentation Award at the American Society of Cytopathology annual meeting (1995) in New York and testified for the American Society of Clinical Pathologists at the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee meeting held at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March 1996, regarding the future of computerized proficiency testing. Interestingly, the College of American Pathologists contacted the author to request a copy of the dissertation. The study addressed locator and interpretive skills, as the digitized images could be “screened” and “focused,” simulating the microscopic experience. The study demonstrated that the computer-based test was statistically better than the current glass slide examination.Why didn't computerized testing “catch on”? Partially because the law was not changed to incorporate the computer medium, but also because it was new. Management and development became the issues of the day; almost 10 years later they do not seem to be resolved.