title: Quality assurance in a fine-needle aspiration biopsy service.
abstract: Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is an increasingly popular tool for the evaluation of a variety of palpable and nonpalpable masses. Its acceptance has been based on its simplicity, safety, and accuracy. It is its accuracy that is crucial and that requires careful clinical and/or histologic follow-up. In order to satisfy our own department's quality assurance requirements, we developed a computer-based searching program that effectively identifies FNAB cases in which there was histologic follow-up and retrieves the necessary information to produce a meaningful quality assurance report.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Sideli
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D011786:Quality Control; D012984:Software