Knowledge of Medical Students about Pathological Reports

Background: Considering that the only way to transfer data between the pathologist and the medical staff, particularly the therapeutic physician, is a documented report that serves as a base for the physician to diagnose the type, stage and beginning indications of the disease, it stands to reason that the therapeutic physician must possess sufficient proficiency in the comprehension of the pathological report. We aimed is to measure the ability of a medical student to correctly understand a pathological report at the end of a course of study.Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. The subjects were 60 interns chosen randomly at different stages of internship. Each participant was given either a traditional or newspaper report format. Then, the questionnaires were handed out to assess the results.Results: Overall, 61% of the participants answered the questionnaire. Depending on the topic of the report, there was a highly significant 44-73% differential in the answers given. On the other hand, in comparing the actual formats (traditional and newspaperial), no significant difference wasobserved. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed in the reports of those interns with more experience.Conclusion: The study showed that possessing more proficiency in the topic had the most impact on the quality of the reports. Furthermore, the reports showed a more thorough understanding when the subject possessed better knowledge of a less complicated topic. Lastly, changing the format of the reports from traditional to newspaperial did not increase the level of comprehension.