title: A template for a clinico-pathological audit of medical liver biopsies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  With changing indications for performing medical liver biopsies, we aimed to develop a tool to allow pathologists to evaluate the current usefulness, value and impact of their medical liver biopsy service.
  
  
  METHODS
  We designed and piloted a questionnaire-based clinico-pathological audit for medical liver biopsies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The audit tool was simple to implement and provided useful information about our service. Hepatologists felt that 96% of reports were clinically useful. 56% of biopsies confirmed clinical diagnoses, 46% helped differentiate between diagnoses and 42% were able to exclude possible diagnoses. 74% resulted in a change of management and 27% of liver biopsies resulted in a diagnosis which was not clinically suspected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrate the usefulness of an audit tool in providing evidence of the value of the liver pathology service in a large UK regional centre.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Colling
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fryer
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cobbold
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Collier
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Collantes
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Lai Mun
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Cancer Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hubscher
authors.affiliation: Department of Histopathology, St. James's Hospital, Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wyatt
authors.affiliation: Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fleming
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: AUDIT; LIVER; QUALITY ASSURANCE