TECHNOLOGY-ASSESSMENT IN ANATOMIC PATHOLOGY - AN ILLUSTRATION OF TESTEVALUATION USING FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY

Although anatomic pathology diagnoses are the standard on which treatm ents often are based, many facets of anatomic pathology have not been rigorously examined. These areas include the evaluation of a procedure 's technical and diagnostic characteristics, clinical utility, and cos t. Technology assessment is the disciplined scientific and systematic evaluation of a test or procedure, and it can be used to evaluate thes e areas in anatomic pathology. To illustrate and promote the use of te chnology assessment in anatomic pathology, we show examples in fine-ne edle aspiration biopsy, which is a subspecialty of cytopathology. We d iscuss some of the more commonly encountered problems and misconceptio ns of test evaluation and also the need for further fine-needle aspira tion biopsy evaluation. We conclude that technology assessment is a po werful but underutilized tool for test evaluation in fine-needle aspir ation biopsy and in anatomic pathology.