Pictures in Reports

pathstudent · Feb 9, 2010

I have noticed almost all reference labs and many pod labs including photographs of the histology in reports. Why do they do this? Surely the physicians and patients don't know what they are looking at, and another pathologist would never confirm or reject a diagnosis based on one picture. I have even seen some bone marrow reports that showed pictures of the smears, flow cytometry panels, immunos, karyotype, FISH and PCR for clonality. One I remember was a staging marrow for a low grade lymphoma and it had all those studies for a negative marrow. It seemed like overkill to me.

Is it necessary for academic centers and private groups to start doing this also to "compete" with reference and pod labs.

2121115 · Feb 9, 2010

pathstudent said:
I have noticed almost all reference labs and many pod labs including photographs of the histology in reports. Why do they do this? Surely the physicians and patients don't know what they are looking at, and another pathologist would never confirm or reject a diagnosis based on one picture. I have even seen some bone marrow reports that showed pictures of the smears, flow cytometry panels, immunos, karyotype, FISH and PCR for clonality. One I remember was a staging marrow for a low grade lymphoma and it had all those studies for a negative marrow. It seemed like overkill to me.

Is it necessary for academic centers and private groups to start doing this also to "compete" with reference and pod labs.

It is becoming more and more popular and I've even heard it mentioned as part of "transformation". I've also seen a ton graphical representations of prostate cancer based on where the cancer is located (i.e. "left lateral mid" etc). This prostate reporting seems to be standard for reference labs.

lipomas · Feb 9, 2010

It's meaningless. I suppose it appeals to some patients. I doubt that clinicians really care since they don't need a diagram to know where the biopsy came from and the image of the tumor doesn't mean anything. What gets me is that sometimes you see these reports and the image doesn't correspond to the diagnosis. I have no idea whether it is really going to be important in the future or not. I tend to doubt it. Window dressing usually doesn't impact practice significantly.

donk · Feb 9, 2010

In some instances it can provide a little extra quality assurance for cases with multiple specimens and for attendings who verify reports after sign out. It's also good customer service - sure some clinicians could care less but a minority really appreciate it. And in case you haven't been reading these threads lately your goal should be keeping clinicians as happy as possible.

PresterJohn · Feb 10, 2010

Sadly, it absolutely matters from an outreach perspective. While a clinician isn't going to question a diagnosis based on the picture/dot-plot/etc, they like pretty, colorful reports. All else being equal, clinicians prefer labs that have the glossy brochures, the customized specimen kits, and fancy reports. I think the assumption is that if a lab has what it takes to add all the meaningless bells and whistles, the rest of their operation must be similarly polished. I'm married to a laboratory sales rep, and it's shocking to hear about the asinine things that make offices choose one lab over another.

Pictures in Reports

pathstudent

Sound Kapital

2121115

Full Member

lipomas

Full Member

donk

New Member

PresterJohn

Full Member

Similar threads