getting paid by the number of lymph nodes

Keith Kaplan read this article on My Way News: Few hospitals meet colon cancer care standard, and concludes that in the future, pathologists might be paid by the number of lymph nodes.

"Surgeons frequently tell of getting a pathology report of four clean nodes and asking the pathologist to find more, "and lo and behold, one of those additional nodes turns out to be positive," Bilimoria said."

"But he expects more 12-node checks soon, saying the National Quality Forum recently listed the standard as a sign of quality care and that at least one insurance giant has begun requiring proof of 12-node checks before listing surgeons as preferred providers."

"Meanwhile, he advises patients to ask about the 12-node check in choosing a surgeon and to check their pathology report to be sure it was done."

This is always the problem with examining slides, no matter how careful and thorough you are, there can be something you missed.  It is hard to examine a whole slide at high resolution, and of course a slide only contains one section of the tissue block.  This is one of the opportunities for digital pathology, to automate screening as a safety net to help eliminate false negatives.