The British Gynaecological Cancer Society Delphi consultation exercise on expected standards of practice for doctors specializing in the area of gynecological oncology.

OBJECTIVE: To determine a set of auditable standards applicable to physicians working in the area of gynecological oncology, which could be implemented as accreditation criteria for the revalidation procedure. DESIGN: A 3-round Delphi consultation exercise. SETTING: British Gynaecological Cancer Society (BGCS) members and delegates at the 2006 and 2007 Annual BGCS conferences Population 35 BGCS members, 72 delegates attending the 2006 BGCS conference and 120 delegates attending the 2007 conference. METHODS: A preliminary Delphi consultation of members was performed electronically to determine the contents of the final Delphi questionnaires. Prioritization was achieved by scoring each parameter on a 5-point Likert scale. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The mean score awarded to each benchmarking parameter and the identification of parameters scoring 4 or above 75% or more of the respondents. RESULTS: The first round contained responses from 68 participants in stage 1 and 72 in stage 2. The second round included 120 participants. Nine of the auditable standards in first round and 10 in the second round achieved a score of 4 or above 75% or more of the participants and were therefore considered to be essential for revalidation. The selected criteria focused on an individual clinician's caseload and performance, multidisciplinary team working and continued professional development. CONCLUSIONS: This study has used the Delphi technique to identify auditable standards which could be used in the revalidation process of physicians working in the area of gynecological cancer.

Multidisciplinary colposcopy clinicopathology correlation meetings: an activity review.

OBJECTIVE: Multidisciplinary colposcopy clinicopathology correlation meetings are deemed to be an important aspect of colposcopic quality assurance and are often a focus of attention in colposcopy quality assurance peer-review assessments. Despite this, there are few data on such meetings detailing activity or providing benchmarks for audit. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis of clinicopathology correlation meetings held during a 3-year period (2004-2006) at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire was performed. RESULTS: A total of 65 meetings were held on a 2 to 4 weekly basis. All meetings contained a representation from cytology, pathology, and colposcopy. A total of 518 cases were listed and 475 were discussed, representing 6.6% of the total patient attendances at the colposcopy clinic during the study period. The main indications for discussion were as follows: cytology/histology discrepancy (35%), cytology/colposcopy discrepancy (10%), management dilemma (25%), and invasive cancer review (18%). A small proportion of cases listed (8%) were not discussed because of administrative problems. Problems were encountered in the quality of documentation, inconsistencies in the recording of findings, conclusions, and management plans. CONCLUSIONS: Multidisciplinary colposcopy pathology meetings provide a valuable data resource for recording and analyzing challenging areas in the clinical management of women with abnormal cervical cytology. However, such meetings are time and labor intensive both in terms of personnel and preparation. National guidelines need to be developed to guide clinicians on the frequency and standards required from such meetings.

Synchronous acousto-optic tuning of free-space external-cavity lasers.

Mechanically tuned external-cavity lasers in which the cavity and the mode filter are tuned synchronously are well known and commercially available. The synchronicity allows phase-continuous tuning to be obtained. Acousto-optic tuning has potential advantages in terms of speed, stability, and precision, but a method for synchronous tuning is required. We propose such a method and describe its experimental verification.