Driving structured reporting

Abstract

The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) has been running a structured pathology reporting program for cancer for almost a decade now and this represents an opportune time to assess the progress to date and the future directions for structured reporting. The key driving forces behind the move to structured (synoptic) reporting remain largely the same: published studies have demonstrated that structured reports provide more complete and accurate datasets for cancer management, research, clinical trials and cancer registries than traditional narrative pathology reports. However, the production of comprehensive structured reporting protocols for a wide range of cancers requires significant resourcing, including items such as pathologists' time, the employment of associated support staff and funding for face-to-face meetings and teleconferences. To address this, in 2011 the RCPA joined with the Royal College of Pathologists (UK), College of American Pathologists and the Canadian Association of Pathologists, to found the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR) with the aim of streamlining and harmonising the creation of pathology cancer datasets internationally. Development of RCPA protocols is now aligned with the publication of the ICCR datasets. This presentation will highlight upcoming cancer protocols as well as discuss the potential advantages inherent in electronic implementation.