Quality Assurance in Histopathology Laboratories

Achieving and maintaining quality is of utmost importance in laboratory operations for the best possible patient care. The concepts of quality control and related quality procedures and programs are relatively new and less well understood in histopathology laboratories than in other sections of clinical laboratories, particularly in developing countries. This is because the main product from these laboratories consists of descriptive, opinion-based reports rather than numerical reports as in other fields of laboratory medicine, and most of the work is still manual and involves multiple steps. The scope and extent of quality schemes in histopathology laboratories are very broad and complex, requiring coordinated and concerted efforts on the part of all stakeholders to achieve and maintain quality services in these laboratories. There is a need to create awareness among the pathologist community and other healthcare members about the necessity of quality assurance and improvement schemes in these laboratories to achieve optimal patient care.