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Cytopathology laboratory’s quality assessment is achieved by continuous monitoring of specific indicators, such as turnaround times, interobserver or intraobserver diagnostic reproducibility, and concordance between histological and cytological diagnosis (Archondakis et al., 2009).
The agreement is the total or the proportional number of cases that were given the same diagnosis between or within observers, including the part of the agreement that may be attributed to chance (Archondakis et al., 2009; Lin, 2018).
Reproducibility is the part of the agreement that cannot be explained purely by chance. The κ statistic measures reproducibility. It is estimated that k values higher than 0.80 indicate almost perfect agreement, while κ values of 0.61–0.80 indicate substantial agreement (Archondakis et al., 2009; Lin, 2018). In our study, the intraobserver κ mean value was 0.81 (almost perfect). As long as the number of mistakes committed during specimen collection, preparation, and diagnostic interpretation diminishes, all monitored quality assessors continue to improve, and vice versa (Archondakis et al., 2009; Lin, 2018). The practice of diagnostic cytology performed on digital images is a novel process that can be used for obtaining expert opinions on severecases from remote laboratories (telecytology) (Archondakis et al., 2009; Brooker et al., 2019). Telecytological diagnosis can be achieved either with the use of cytological pictures viewed in real-time from the microscope (dynamic telecytological systems) or with the use of cytological images that are first captured in a digital format and then transmitted to distant observers (static telecytological systems) (Archondakis et al., 2009; Stamataki et al., 2008). As a result, many studies have focused on the possible role of telecytology as a tool of diagnosis and consultation in the everyday workflow (Archondakis et al., 2009; Brooker et al., 2019).