QUALITY ASSURANCE IN CYTOLOGY BY MEANS OF CONTINUOUS REGISTRATION OF THE STAGE MOVEMENT DURING MICROSCOPIAL WORK

The discussion concerning the maximum workload of microscopical slides to be screened by doctors or cytotechnologists per unit of time has b een activated in Germany by a ''Guideline of the German Medical Associ ation concerning quality assurance of cervical cytology''. In this gui deline the maximum workload is 8-10 cases per hour. To control the adh erence to these guidelines we have monitored the screening process by using Axio-HOME-Microscopes to registrer the microscope stage coordina tes every twenty milliseconds. In a series of 8653 slides screened by 5 cytotechnologists the average screening time was 31/2 minutes follow ed by an average intercase interval of 2 minutes. The destribution of the screening work over the day was presented in form of daily working profiles, allowing a control of workload limits. The results did not indicate, that the screening time per case vary with the time of the d ay and the day of the week. Since this approach to quality assurance s eemed practical also for routine cytology, all working places of the c ytotechnologists at the Cytological Institute of the Bavarian Cancer S ociety have been equiped with this set up for quality assurance.