Abstract
AIMS:
Cancer
datasets drive report quality, but require more work to inform
compliant reports. The aim of this study was to
correlate the number of
words with measures of quality, to examine the impact of the drive for
improved quality on the workload of histopathology reporting over time.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
We
examined the first
10 reports of colon, breast, renal, lung and
ovarian
carcinoma, melanoma resection, nodal lymphoma appendicitis and
seborrhoeic keratosis (SK) issued in 1991, 2001 and 2011. Correlations
were analysed using Pearson's partial correlation coefficients. Word
count increased significantly over time for most specimen types
examined.
Word count almost always correlated with units of information,
indicating that the word count was a good measure of the amount of
information contained within the reports; this correlation was preserved
following correction for the effect of time. A good correlation with
compliance with cancer datasets was also observed, but was weakened or
lost following correction for the increase in word count and units of
information that occurred between time points.
CONCLUSIONS:
These
data indicate that word count could potentially be used as a measure of
information content if its integrity and usefulness are continuously
validated. Further prospective studies are required to assess and
validate this approach.
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