Return to Main Menu

Improve Pap test interpretation in demand by Kathy J. Gatten College of Health Professions It seemed like such a good idea. Institute federal regulations to ensure the accuracy of gynecological laboratory tests. But it all went downhill once the trial lawyers got involved.  Then College of Health Professions’ associate professor Blair Holladay came up with a solution. The challenge: Find a method to curtail litigation and continue to offer the life-saving Pap test to the 50 million women in the U.S. who require it yearly. Increasing litigation costs have been passed along to the patient and now the Pap test for cervical cancer, the only cancer screening test to date that has been able to significantly decrease cancer mortality, is fast becoming cost prohibitive to the segment of the population who needs it most—the underserved.  The risk: Witness a rise in the incidence of cervical cancer, a disease that once was the number-one cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Holladay, director of the college’s cytotechnology program, had an idea.  The solution: Provide a method for interpreting Pap smears that would eliminate biased medical experts and that is fair to both the patient and the health care provider. The result, Holladay believed, would be that most cases could be settled out of court or dropped altogether, thereby reducing litigation.  And he was right.  Along with Marshall Austin, M.D., of Charleston Pathology, Holladay spent five years co-developing the now internationally accepted methodology.  The system is complex, involving elaborate checks and balances, and fairly lengthy, requiring two to three weeks to complete, but it has been adopted by all of the national cytopathology organizations as well as most state and regional cytology organizations as the only way to verify the accuracy of these laboratory tests.  To date, more than 70 hospitals across the nation have used Holladay's service. In fall 1999, the Center for Quality Improvement in Gynecologic Cytopathology was established with Holladay as director. Today, the center provides quality improvement services to hospitals across the nation and Canada by evaluating all cancer specimen types, particularly focusing on those cancers that are most likely to take human life: lung, breast, and colon, deep-seated tumors (pancreas, liver) and gynecological tumors. The center's goal is to perform services that will improve the practice of cytopathology.  Additional services include conducting cancer research and clinical trials, helping laboratories comply with the federal regulations, and providing numerous off-site educational venues. For more information, call 1-800-668-7535, 792-3169, or e-mail Holladay at holladab@musc.edu.