YESRs—where and why they’re available

October 2005
PAP/NGC Programs Review

William D. Tench, MD

The year-end summary reports, or YESRs, for 2004 for nongyn and gyn cytology programs are now on the CAP Web site. They are an integral component of the CAP-sponsored interlaboratory peer comparison programs in gyn and nongyn cytopathology. The information they contain sets these programs apart from proficiency-testing-only programs.

Each report contains a summary of the laboratory responses to all of the testing challenges throughout the year and provides useful information for establishing benchmarking and individual laboratory performance. In addition, the nongyn report includes an analysis of the responses for two specific organ systems, thyroid and lung, and identifies potential problem areas in diagnoses in these organ systems. The online report makes this information readily available to all participants, and it mitigates the problem of paper reports becoming lost in disorganized offices.

These reports can be accessed through the CAP Web site by (1) entering “Year End Summary Report” into the search box at the top right corner of the Web site and subsequently selecting the search result option “Cytopathology Resource Committee” which includes choices for each of the individual reports, or (2) selecting “About the College” in the tool bar at the top of the page, then selecting “Committees/Councils” from the options on the left of the page, followed by selecting “Cytopathology Committee,” and scrolling midway down that page to each highlighted separate report.

Each report contains a significant amount of data and may require patience to download onto your computer, even through a relatively fast connection. That patience is rewarded by the ability to save a copy of this report into a readily accessible folder on your own hard drive, relieving you of the need to keep an organized and space-consuming paper file.