News
6 February 2008A Report from the December Cervical Review Meeting
As many of you are aware the cervical review group has met 3 times since May 2007. The notes from the last meeting in December have not been ratified yet but there were significant developments and we thought we should update you. At the meeting there was discussion around three main areas :-
Should we carry out a feasibility study to assess the benefits of an imaging system in cervical cytology?
There was agreement that funding would be made available to assess the feasibility of using an imaging system to aid the cytoscreening process. If the feasibility study proved the benefit of this technology within a Scottish Cohort there was a high likelihood of funding to implement the technology on a national basis.
In the light of this a feasibility review group has been formed to look at the research methodology, protocols, risks and implementation process and this group met on the 5th February 2008 (report to follow).
- The potential of an options appraisal of how cytology could be organised and delivered in the future taking cognisance of the impact of HPV vaccination/testing, manpower requirements and impact of new technology. After significant debate over the potential options to be evaluated it was felt that this was an evolving process and that a lot of the evidence was incomplete with little in the way of factual/statistical information on the impact of the above factors. It was decided that this process could be aided by the appointment of an external consultancy.
- Was a presentation by Professor Heather Cubie on the impact of HPV testing and the international evidence on potential impact to screening programmes.
The above is a personal interpretation of the meeting and the minutes have not been ratified yet but we felt that the information should be circulated as quickly as possible. The minutes, papers and a report on the feasibility group will be circulated as soon as we have them.