title: Impact of Consensus Conference Review on Diagnostic Disagreements in the Evaluation of Cervical Biopsy Specimens.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the impact of consensus conferences on the frequency of discrepant cases in a surgical pathology practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  The percentage of discrepancies in cases reviewed at a weekly consensus conference was calculated for the first and last months of a 13-month period. Both interrater agreement and agreement with the consensus diagnoses were assessed. A total of 309 diagnoses were performed for the first month and 518 for the last month. Both absolute and chance-corrected agreement were calculated for each period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Absolute agreement rate increased from 91.2% in the first month to 98.2% in the final month. Chance-corrected agreement increased from 0.80 in the first month to 0.97 in the final month.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The consensus conference technique appears to be a useful method to reduce intradepartmental diagnostic discrepancies. Both absolute and chance-corrected agreement are improved by using consensus conferences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Lester J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Layfield
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Hammer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Shellaine R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Frazier
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Magda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Esebua
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: William W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Bivin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Katsiaryna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laziuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Van T
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Johannesen
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D003245:Consensus Statements as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010340:Pathology, Surgical / Q000592:standards*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*
keywords: Agreement analysis; Consensus conference; Diagnostic discrepancies; Error reduction