Do you still perform COLPOSCOPIES?

Hello Alumni. Which of you still perform colposcopies in your office? Dr. Keehbauch has some suspicions that the ASCCP guidelines on resident competency may have impacted the number of colposcopies that family doctors perform. Could you please e-mail us if you still perform colposcopies and the year that your graduated? Thanks so much.

Here our study proposal...

Background and Objectives: The study objective was to determine the influence of the 2001 and 2006, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) guidelines changes on colposcopy training at one family medicine residency.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review from 1/1/2000 to 10/31/2009.  The 2001 ASCCP guidelines were fully implemented into our practice in June 2002 and the 2006 guidelines in June 2008.
Data were extracted with from our electronic medical records and sorted into three groups:  2000-2002 (pre-2001 guideline changes), 2003-2007 (post 2001 and pre-2006 update), and 2008-2009 (post 2006 changes) for total female patient visits aged 18-75 years, pap smears, and colposcopies. An ANOVA post-hoc comparison test was performed on the 3 data groups to test significance.

Results: After the 2001 guidelines; there was a 28.6% significant decrease in colposcopies (CI 0.20-0.37). An additional, 16.5% significant decrease occurred post the 2006 revisions (CI 0.06-0.28). Consequently, residents performed 45.1% fewer colposcopies. The total number of pap smears remained relatively unchanged.

Conclusion: Implementation of the 2001 and 2006 ASCCP guidelines significantly reduced the number colposcopies performed, resulting in greater difficulty training competent Family Medicine residents in colposcopy.