An analysis of clinical consultation activities in clinical chemistry: implications for transformation and resident training in chemical pathology.

Context: Clinical consultation is a key role of pathologists. Many have advocated that pathologists expand their consulting activities to improve laboratory utilization. Although many have suggested that residency programs need to provide experience in clinical consultation, little has been written on the nature of consultation or on the methods of training.

Objective: To characterize the content of consultations and to describe training in consultation in chemical pathology within the residency program at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Design: Retrospective review of the consultation database for the period between July 2011 and July 2012.

Results: Residents performed an average of 159 consultations a month covering 276 topics during the course of a year. Each topic involved 1 or more specific tests. Eighty percent of the topics received fewer than 12 calls. The most common topics involved virus testing (eg, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, human immunodeficiency virus). Consultations most often involved test interpretation (53%), selection (38%), and performance characteristics (21%). Twenty-seven percent of consultations involved 2 or more consultation categories (eg, interpretation and performance).

Conclusions: Consultation calls in chemical pathology are widely distributed across topics. Consultations most often involve test interpretation and selection. Methods to assess the effectiveness of consultations and resident teaching should be devised.