Nothing is perfect, including the Interpretive Comments UKNEQAS, but I believe that it fulfills a useful purpose. On occasion I have been indignant at my low score when I have felt that my comment was actually more appropriate than some of the high scoring comments. On the other hand, I do find that participating is a useful learning experience. Although it is intended that comments should be added as we would in the clinical lab, in fact I'm sure that many people treat the cases as 'short case' questions, which is not inappropriate if the purpose is to increase or assess one's knowledge. It also seems that the assessors treat the cases in the same light.
The real problem is that whilst it is a useful tool for self-audit, used externally to judge 'performance' it becomes dangerous.
The QA scheme fills a necessary niche, and is still in its early days. I see no simple way in which clinical comments can be assessed / compared / judged other than by the current system, with all its imperfections.
My only real beef is the 200 character limit, which forces us to use 'silly' abbreviations - (I'm sure that in real life no-one would use 'E4esis' in a comment!) this forces us to be less grammatical and coherent than in a eral clinical situation.
Cathryn Corns
Head of Biochemistry
ext 4058
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