Do pathologists and clinicians understand each other?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Pathologists use many phrases in histopathology reports to convey the level of diagnostic certainty. This could be variably interpreted by the clinician. Our study was carried out to determine the level of diagnostic certainty the pathology report conveys to a clinician, their preferences, and the frequency of usage of these phrases. METHOD: A questionnaire constructed using the 13 most frequently encountered phrases in pathology reports was circulated among 15 pathologists and 15 clinicians. Both groups were asked to score the level of diagnostic certainty of each of these phrases. Pathologists were asked to comment on the frequency of usage and clinicians their preference for each of these phrases. RESULTS; 'Consistent with' and 'those/that of were the most commonly used phrases (73%). There was variation in the interpretation of both these phrases amongst the pathologists. A high degree of diagnostic certainty was conveyed to 100% of the clinicians by the former and only 73% by the latter. 'Diagnostic of and 'Characteristic of were the phrases most commonly preferred by the clinicians (86%). There was concordance in interpretation of the former phrase between both groups. But this phrase was used frequently only by 20% of the pathologists and occasionally by 33%. CONCLUSION: A wide individual variation in interpretation of phrases exist among both groups. Therefore a limited number of mutually acceptable phrases or a "single line" conclusion is recommended.