Technical Competency Assessment of Peripheral Blood Smears: Tools and Trends Learned From 2 College of American Pathologists Q-Probes Studies.

Abstract

Context.—: Morphologic evaluation of peripheral blood smears provides valuable information to diagnose and manage a variety of hematologic disorders.

Objective.—: To measure the competency of the technical staff in the morphologic evaluation of peripheral blood smears and provide performance trends.

Design.—: Participating technologists accessed 10 whole slide-imaged peripheral blood smears through a web-based imaging tool in 2 separate studies. Participants performed a 100-cell differential and morphologic evaluation for each slide image. Grading criteria, determined by 3 hematopathologists, were weighted according to their clinical significance (score range, 0-100 for each case). Each institution and participant answered a questionnaire to assess the impact of current practices and educational programs on competency scores.

Results.—: A total of 776 technologists from 92 institutions participated in study 1 and 1495 technologists from 179 institutions participated in study 2. Median performance scores for institutions were 78.9 and 87.6 for studies 1 and 2, respectively, encompassing a range of hematologic disorders. Based on results of the questionnaire for study 1, higher performance scores were seen when institutions required a specific number of continuing education credits per year through an agency (P = .005). In study 2, institutions with remediation procedures following a failed competency demonstrated higher performance scores (P = .03).

Conclusions.—: Medical technologist competency of peripheral blood smears improves with level of experience and is positively impacted through attending educational programs. Whole slide images offer a convenient means of assessing technical competence and provide data to allow institutions to appropriately focus their procedures and educational efforts.