Diagnostic histopathology involves making diagnoses based on the microscopic examination of tissues removed during various operative interventions and procedures such as endoscopy, biopsy or resections.

The biopsy or surgical specimen is processed and histological sections are placed onto glass slides for examination under a microscope.

Cytopathology deals with diseases on the cellular level. A common application of cytopathology is the smear test, used to detect precancerous cervical lesions and prevent cervical cancer.

The Histopathology National Quality Improvement Programme was developed by the Faculty of Pathology as a matter of priority following high-profile cancer misdiagnosis cases in 2007 and 2008.

The Faculty wanted to systematically produce robust evidence on histopathology services in Ireland against the highest international standards. It also wanted to address the lack of national standards or benchmarks for auditing pathology services.

This programme was known as the National Quality Assurance Programme in Histopathology until February 2015.

The Faculty of Pathology has set evidence-based targets so that histopathology laboratories can track their performance in a number of key areas, for example how quickly test results are processed and reported.

Laboratories enter data relating to their performance against these targets in an online quality information system, which then calculates a national average. Laboratories can then see how they are performing compared to the national average and identify if there are issues that need to be addressed or areas in which they are excelling.

Ultimately, laboratories that are performing better than average are encouraged to share their best practice approach with other laboratories, resulting in improved standards overall.

Download the NQAIS Histopathology user manual