title: Review of Medical Advisory Services by the Korean Society of Pathologists from 2003 to 2014.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Since 2003, the Korean Society of Pathologists (KSP) has been officially providing medical advisory services (MAS). We reviewed the cases submitted to the KSP between 2003 and 2014.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 1,950 cases were submitted, most by private health insurance companies. The main purposes of the consultations were to clarify the initial diagnoses and to assign a proper disease classification code. We comprehensively reviewed 1,803 consultation cases with detailed information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In spite of some fluctuations, the number of submitted cases has been significantly increasing over the 12 study years. The colon and rectum (40.3%), urinary bladder (14.2%), and stomach (6.9%) were the three most common tissues of origin. The most common diagnoses for each of the three tissues of origin were neuroendocrine tumor (50.7%), non-invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma (70.7%), and adenocarcinoma (36.2%). Regardless of the tissue of origin, neuroendocrine tumor of the digestive system was the most common diagnosis (419 of 1,803).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the current study, we found that pathologic consultations associated with private health insurance accounted for a large proportion of the MAS. Coding of the biologic behavior of diseases was the main issue of the consultations. In spite of the effort of the KSP to set proper guidelines for coding and classification of tumors, this review revealed that problems still exist and will continue to be an important issue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Min Hye
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Korea.
authors.forename: Geon Kook
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea.
authors.forename: Han Seong
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Wan Seop
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Medical advisory service; Pathologic consultation; Private health insurance