COMMENTARY

Putting new guidelines into practice is easier said than done

The new recommendations on cervical cytology are evidence-based and endorsed by our scholarly and professional societies. It’s difficult to disagree. Difficult, but not impossible.

New York University Medical Center

The field is still evolving, and it is evolving so rapidly that I believe the changed recommendations may be premature. As our understanding of the high-risk types of human papillomavirus evolves, the time may soon come when exfoliative cytology as we know it may not be the screening method of choice. The introduction of liquid-based Pap smears and reflex high-risk HPV testing has caused tremendous change in how we collect and interpret smears.

But the task of putting new technologies into practice can be somewhat daunting.