A networked computer program for managing a national external quality assurance scheme in cytopathology

We describe a computer program to manage a national external quality assurance (EQA) scheme in cytopathology which uses the international computer network, the Internet, to collect data directly from participants, thereby reducing errors of transcription and administrative costs. Feedback to screeners and pathologists is provided as high quality images of the diagnostic areas on the slide which are only available once all users at a centre have entered their answers. This allows comparison with the original material while it is still available at the site. Users are encouraged to register differences of opinion by labelling areas on images of the slides on the computer. The program performs the statistical analysis of the data for each centre and each slide.