To progress adoption of the protocols across Australia, a request to NPAAC was submitted requesting consideration of the development of a standard on the reporting of cancer against which laboratories would be accredited. A compliance matrix (available from the following link) has been developed to describe the significant stages of development that laboratories must transit to achieve a fully structured model.
www.rcpa.edu.au/Publications/StructuredReporting/compliancematrix.htm
Compliance at level 3 was requested as this will start laboratories on the process and to achieve the benefits of improved completeness of cancer reports. This request was discussed at the October NPAAC meeting. Following on from this in December there was a recommendation from the college to include “Structured pathology reporting, especially where consensus report templates are available, should be used wherever possible” after CC6.1 on page 16 of the draft Requirements for Medical Pathology Services Tier 2 document. A tier 3 document specific to Anatomical Pathology is planned and will describe recommendations on structured pathology reporting. Ratification of these documents will result in the mandating of structured pathology reporting of cancer.