PERPHERAL BLOOD SMEAR REPORT TEMPLATES
DPALM/ UT-Medical School at Houston, Pathology/
Last Revision on: 8/30/2011
- A Synoptic Reporting System for Peripheral Blood Smear Interpretation:
Web-based synoptic reporting systems have been shown to improve efficiency, reduce turnaround time,
and decrease reporting errors in surgical pathology specimens as well as in hematologic neoplasms and
bone marrow reports. No such system has been previously described for the reporting of peripheral blood smears.
We developed a web-based synoptic reporting system composed of a knowledge-base encompassing 150 peripheral blood
smear report templates covering a wide range of findings. This system was used at our institution by pathology
residents under the supervision of an attending pathologist to generate peripheral blood smear reports.
This system was found to produce a significant reduction in typographic errors with decreased turnaround time
and improved accuracy. This synoptic reporting system can help both practicing pathologists and pathology trainees
to draft a complete and concise report.
- Development Platform:
This web-based synoptic reporting system is implemented in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), a conventional
language for web documents. Interactivity with users is achieved with JavaScript, a scripting language for
adding dynamic features to web pages. Dynamic features allow users to interact with graphic interface components
on the computer screen such as buttons, lists, check boxes, etc. to retrieve the desired information. These dynamic
features can be coded in HTML files in the form of JavaScript functions or subroutines. JavaScript is also used to
create functions and subroutines used in the search engine for displaying the report templates. The synoptic system
is installed on a Microsoft Window XP server running Microsoft Internet Information Server in the Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Texas-Houston, Medical School. The hospital laboratory information
system (LIS) at our institution is Cerner Millennium, which is well integrated with other Cerner clinical systems
including electronic medical records, radiology, and pharmacy.
- Publication:
Jesse Jaso, MD; Alex Nguyen; Andy N. D. Nguyen, MD. A Synoptic Reporting System for Peripheral Blood Smear
Interpretation. AJCP, Am J Clin Pathol 2011;135:358-364