The National Pathology Accreditation Advisory Council (NPAAC) which is managed by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing plays a key role in ensuring the quality of Australian pathology services and is responsible for the development and maintenance of standards and guidelines for pathology practices. In regard to reporting NPAAC have a single standard “Reports commensurate with good medical laboratory practice and patient care must be provided to the requesting practitioner.” 5 NPAAC also includes standards for information communication but this is concerned with report messaging, identification, security and privacy rather than specific formatting concerns.
Neither the Australia Standard 4700.2-2007 “Implementation of Health Level Seven (HL7) Version 2.4 - Pathology and medical imaging (diagnostics)” nor the Handbook HB 262 “Guidelines for pathology messaging between pathology providers and health service providers” provide any information or recommendations on the style (text layout) of pathology reports.