To determine the impact of consensus conferences on the frequency of discrepant cases in a surgical pathology practice.
The percentage of discrepancies in cases reviewed at a weekly consensus conference was calculated for the first and last months of a 13-month period. Both interrater agreement and agreement with the consensus diagnoses were assessed. A total of 309 diagnoses were performed for the first month and 518 for the last month. Both absolute and chance-corrected agreement were calculated for each period.
Absolute agreement rate increased from 91.2% in the first month to 98.2% in the final month. Chance-corrected agreement increased from 0.80 in the first month to 0.97 in the final month.
The consensus conference technique appears to be a useful method to reduce intradepartmental diagnostic discrepancies. Both absolute and chance-corrected agreement are improved by using consensus conferences.