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Screening cervical smears.

D Laming
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Abstract

A plausible explanation is offered why an experienced pathologist engaged in the screening of cervical smears should have issued a large number of false-negative diagnoses. The explanation centres on the interactions which occur between successive judgements when a sequence of similar stimuli are inspected. Briefly, those interactions have the character of an assimilation of each judgement to its predecessor, and the resultant process is capable of 'running away'. A procedure is suggested, involving the provision of immediate knowledge of results for a small proportion of the smears inspected, which would prevent such systematic misdiagnoses from recurring in the future.

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AttentionDiagnostic ErrorsFalse Negative ReactionsFemaleHumansMass ScreeningProbabilitySensitivity and SpecificityUterine Cervical NeoplasmsVaginal SmearsJournal Article

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BibTeXRIS

D Laming. 1995. Screening cervical smears.. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1995.tb02567.x

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